Military Watch Magazine – March 19, 2026

The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has published footage confirming the successful targeting of a U.S. F-35 fifth generation fighter using a ground based air defence system, marking the first surface-to-air kill against an aircraft of its generation to be confirmed. It remains uncertain whether the F-35 was shot down, or only seriously damaged, with U.S. sources claiming that it succeeded in making an emergency landing. The footage was published just hours after the U.S. long-range, high-altitude (HALE) unmanned intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft, unofficially known as the RQ-180, was also forced to make an emergency landing near Iran, which fuelled speculation that it may also have been successfully targeted.

A US MQ-9 Reaper drone shot down over Iran

The F-35’s flight over central Iran for a deep penetration strike operation indicates a degree of confidence that Iranian air defences have been sufficiently weakened that fifth generation aircraft with advanced stealth capabilities can operate safely. The F-35 was conceptualised after the end of the Cold War for an era of warfare in which adversaries would no longer field peer level fighter aircraft, and would instead rely heavily on ground-based air defences as Iran has. Iranian forces have made extensive use of infrared-guided systems to engage targets without emitting radar signatures or alerting targets’ radar warning receivers, with such systems being better optimised to engaging targets like the F-35. Although the F-35 has a reduced heat signature, the reductions made to its radar signature are significantly greater, leaving it relatively more vulnerable to targeting by infrared guided systems.

Iran’s successful targeting of an F-35 is not entirely unprecedented, with the country having supplied advanced infrared-guided air defence systems to strategic partners in Iraq and Yemen, which have used them to target fighter aircraft in the past. This has included multiple confirmed shootdowns of F-15s, F-16s and Eurofighters by Ansuruallh Coalition forces in Yemen using infrared guided air defence systems, as well as the destruction of over a dozen U.S. MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aircraft. Ansuruallh Coalition air defence units were also confirmed to have achieved near misses when targeting F-35s. Iraqi paramilitary groups have also claimed to have achieved multiple successes in shooting down U.S. aircraft, including three F-15 fighters in the opening hours of the war, as well as a KC-135 tanker. The shooting down of an F-35 may result in a serious reevaluation of how the aircraft is operated, including whether it will continue to be used for deep penetration strikes into Iran.

During a 12 day Israeli air assault on Iranian June 2025, Iranian government reported the successful shootdowns of four Israeli Air Force F-35s by ground-based air defence systems. The likely veracity of Iranian claims was previously analysed by Military Watch in detail, including assessments of the strengths and limitations of Iran’s air defences and significant risks faced by F-35s operating on penetration missions deep inside heavily defended airspace. With Israel having maintained very strict censorship of its losses, however, it remains uncertain whether there was any veracity to Iranian claims. Evidence that Iranian air defence systems are capable of successfully targeting F-35s, however, makes the claims made in June appear somewhat more credible.  With the F-35 being required to fly near its targets to strike them, as the lack of Block 4 software prevents them from integrating air-to-ground missiles has older fourth generation fighters have, a reduced ability to overfly Iranian airspace could seriously reduce the aircraft’s utility.

Source