Israel shared new footage of it bombing two of Iran’s American-made fighter jets preparing to take off as joint US-Israeli combat operations against Iran continue.
Iran’s fleet includes several vintage US aircraft, including the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II and legacy Northrop Grumman F-5s. Along with Iran’s few US-provided Tomcats, which were iconized in the “Top Gun” movies, these aircraft are part of an aging Iranian Air Force that has limited air combat capabilities against advanced Israeli and US aircraft.
The Israel Defense Forces video captured strikes on the F-5 and F-4 jets at an airport in Tabriz in western Iran on Sunday morning. The IDF said that it hit the aircraft as they were preparing to take off. The footage shows direct hits on each aircraft.
Israel and the US launched massive attacks on Iran on Saturday, dubbed Operation Epic Fury by Washington and Operation Roaring Lion by Israel. The attacks are aimed at eliminating Iranian leadership and ushering in regime change in Tehran. As of Sunday, Israel and the US say they’ve taken out dozens of Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran has launched several phases of retaliatory missile and drone strikes against Israel and bases hosting US troops in the region, including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The US and Israel have said the operations will continue into the coming weeks.
In sharing the video on the F-4 and F-5 strikes, the IDF said the attacks “were conducted to degrade the Iranian Air Force’s activities and to further expand the degradation of their aerial defense.” The US has said operations are aimed at crippling Iran’s military.
Vintage US-made aircraft
Iran operates a fleet of aging aircraft, including some that are US-made but have become obsolete over the years due to international sanctions and embargoes that have prevented the country from modernizing its fleet.
The F-4 Phantom II, manufactured by the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation and later McDonnell Douglas, now part of Boeing, entered service in the US in early 1960s and was a workhorse during the Vietnam War and Cold War. The two-seat, twin-engine fighter was flown by the US Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps for decades as a principal air superiority fighter.
Through the 1970s and the end of the 20th century, the F-4 was gradually replaced by the F-15 Eagle, F-16 Fighting Falcon, and F/A-18 Hornet, as well as the F-14 Tomcat for various US armed forces.
Prior to the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which upended ties, the US sold many of these aircraft to Iran.
Iran still fields large numbers of the aging fighters — among the most numerous of these Cold War designs still in service globally — but their operational rates have fallen sharply due to sanctions and the difficulty of sustaining upgrades and spare parts.
Iran has kept some aircraft flying due to reverse-engineering, but it’s been estimated to only have about 60 F-4s, fewer than 50 F-5s, and 20 to 30 F-14s in its inventory. Combat over the past year may have reduced those numbers even further.
Actual airworthy numbers are likely lower than reported, with some jets stripped for parts. Iran’s effective airpower remains contested and constrained by attrition and long-running maintenance hurdles.
In contrast, Israel and the US fly newer, more powerful aircraft, including the fifth-generation F-35 stealth fighter, as well as a mix of highly capable fourth-generation jets like F-16s and F-15s.
In previous conflicts, as well as the current one, Israel has said that it’s achieved air superiority over swaths of Iran with a mix of fourth- and fifth-gen fighters and by degrading Iran’s air defenses.
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