Two Iranian Shahed 197 drones heading toward Israel were downed by Israeli F-35i fighter jets last year far beyond the country’s airspace and less than half an hour after they had been identified.
One drone, flying toward Israel from the South, was spotted at around 1:44 a.m. and was shot down at 2:19 a.m. The second one, which was flying in from the East, was identified at 1:46 a.m. and downed at 2:16 a.m.
The F-35i jets were from the 140th Golden Eagle Squadron and 116th Lions of the South Squadron.
The IDF said it did not know where the drones were launched from, but they “were detected and tracked throughout their flight by ground control units.”
“The interceptions of the UAVs were carried out prior to them entering Israeli airspace in coordination with neighboring countries,” the military said, without naming the countries due to security concerns.
The drones that were ferrying weapons to Palestinian terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip were downed last March by missiles fired by the stealth jets, making it the first time that the aircraft downed unmanned aerial systems (UAS) anywhere in the world.
Israeli officials estimate that Iran was attempting to test whether military equipment could be smuggled to Gaza via drone and if successful, whether more significant weapons could be smuggled in a similar way in the future.
The timing of the IDF announcement late on Sunday night was unclear, but it comes as Israel warns that Iran has been increasingly aggressive in the region while it is continuing to negotiate about its nuclear program with Western countries in Vienna.
Iranian aggression is “currently conducted without a ‘nuclear canopy,’” Defense Minister Benny Gantz said in a Facebook post, adding that if the Islamic Republic reaches a nuclear threshold, it will be even more dangerous.
He called on the world to “mobilize to stop Iranian aggression.” Iranian aggression is “a threat to global peace and regional stability, as well as a threat to the State of Israel,” he said. WATCH
