Three New “Adir” (F-35i) Aircraft Landed Last Week (Thursday) at the Nevatim Airbase

Three new "Adir" aircraft, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, landed at the Israeli Air Force's Nevatim Airbase last week (Thursday). The three aircraft bear the IAF insignia and will join the 116th Squadron.

Since the beginning of the war, the Adir squadron has accumulated over 15,000 operational flight hours and has participated in thousands of sorties across all arenas. Thanks to its operational experience and the versatility in missions and arenas that the aircraft allows, significant operational lessons have been learned.

The Adir was originally designed to carry munitions in an internal weapons bay. During the war, a new capability was integrated at the Flight Test Center in collaboration with Lockheed Martin and the F-35 Program at the Pentagon, enabling the external carriage of JDAM munitions on the aircraft’s wings. The Israeli Adir is the only F-35 in the world to have conducted operational strikes with an external weapons configuration, significantly increasing its strike capacity. The expansion of the Adir fleet represents a substantial enhancement to the tactical capabilities of the Israeli Air Force.