Israeli F-35I shoots down a cruise missile for the first time

The Israeli Air Force announced that one of its F-35I «Adir» intercepted and downed a cruise missile headed for the south of the country, possibly coming from Yemen.

On its X social account, formerly known as Twitter, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) posted the video of the interception, recorded from the Electro-Optical Targeting System (EOTS) or EODAS (Electro-Optical Distributed Aperture System), in which it can be seen how the cruise missile is tracked by the F-35I and intercepted with an air-to-air missile.

בימים האחרונים זוהה על ידי מערכות הבקרה והגילוי של חיל-האוויר, טיל שיוט, ששוגר מדרום מזרח אל עבר המרחב האווירי של מדינת ישראל. המערכות עקבו אחרי מסלולו של טיל השיוט והזניקו מטוסי קרב ממערך ה״אדיר״, אשר יירטו אותו בהצלחה. pic.twitter.com/6fP6TnlpTm

— Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) November 2, 2023

IAF reported the following: «In recent days, the Air Force’s control and detection systems detected a cruise missile, which was launched from the southeast towards the airspace of the State of Israel. The systems tracked the trajectory of the cruise missile and launched fighter jets from the «Adir» formation, which successfully intercepted it.»

According to the IAF statement, the interception of the cruise missile into Israel’s airspace occurred on the same day that the Arrow long-range air defense system got its baptism of fire, shooting down an intermediate-range ballistic missile. Available information suggests that both attacks most likely came from western Yemen, territory controlled by the Houthi rebels, who are financed and armed by Iran to help them in their war against Saudi Arabia (and now also Israel), their major regional opponent.

Weapons launched against Israel

The Houthi rebel organization released a video showing the weapons systems they launched against targets in southern Israel, about 1,700 km away from Yemen.

The Houthis publish documentation of the launches towards the State of Israel from Yemen

Among other things, you can see the launch of a ballistic missile and a suicide aircraft.

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— Hot news (@TheNewsTrending) November 1, 2023

The published images show the launch of at least one Burkan-3 ballistic missile, with a range of more than 1,500 km. Then we can see the launching of three or more cruise missiles of the Quds family (like the missile shot down by the F-35), similar to the Iranian Soumar, with a declared range of up to 1,350 km, which was evidently extended in the latest versions of this weapon. Finally, the launching of several suicide drones of different types, all of long range, can be seen.