(National Interest) Sebastien Roblin - On May 22, Israeli Air Force commander Amikam Norkin announced that its F-35I stealth fighters had flown on two combat missions on "different fronts." The first nine F-35s entered operational service in December 2017. Six more should arrive in 2018. Norkin's announcement was as much a part of Israeli strategy as the actual deployment of the fighters. Israel wants potential adversaries (chiefly, Iran, Syria, and Hizbullah) to know that its fighters have already proven capable of infiltrating the airspace of neighboring countries, and that its stealth jets could at any moment launch an attack that may go undetected until the first bomb strikes a target.
2018-07-02 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive