Israel the first to use US-made F-35 in combat: Air force chief

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The chief of the Israeli air force on Tuesday announced that his is the first country that has used the US-made F-35 fighter jet in combat.

Major-General Amikam Norkin made the claim both on the Israeli military's Twitter account and in a speech to a meeting of some 20 foreign air force officials in Israel, as reported by Reuters.

“We are flying the F-35 all over the Middle East and have already attacked twice on two different fronts,” Norkin said, while displaying a photograph of an Israeli F-35 jet flying over Lebanon’s capital.

The F-35 is also known as the Joint Strike Fighter, manufactured by US company Lockheed Martin. In Israel, the jet is called “Adir,” which, in Hebrew, means “mighty.”

Israel was the first foreign state to obtain the US-made F-35, receiving the initial batch of two planes in Dec. 2016, out of an order of 50. So far, the country has received nine of them, according to Israeli media.

Israeli officials say that they have carried out multiple air strikes in Syria against suspected Iranian bases and those transferring weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

It is widely believed that the Israeli air forces have also conducted air strikes against the Islamic State (IS) in Egypt’s Sinai and Hamas arms smugglers in Sudan.

Editing by John J. Catherine