Did Israeli F-35s Just Take Out One of Iran’s Most Valuable Aircraft Deep Behind Enemy Lines?

On June 15 an Israeli air strike destroyed one of the Iranian Air Force’s small fleet of aerial tankers, which are among the highest value aircraft fielded by the service. The aircraft was destroyed at Mashhad Airport in northeast Iran, with Israeli military officials referring to it as “most distant strike since the beginning of the operation.” The airport is located over 2,250 kilometres from Israeli territory, with this strategic depth potentially having led the Iranian Air Force to consider it a safe location to host vulnerable assets. The F-16 which forms the backbone of the Israeli Air Force has a combat radius of just 550 kilometres with a standard combat payload, while the newer F-35 stealth fighter has a radius approaching 1000 kilometres, and the heavyweight F-15 a radius of approximately 1300 kilometres using external fuel tanks, placing Mashhad Airport well out of reach of an unrefuelled bombing strike. Extensive support from aerial tanker assets, however, including both the Israeli Air Force’s small fleet, and reported support from the fleets of many NATO member states, has been key to facilitating attacks deeper into Iran. The fact that the tanker was destroyed on the ground, and not when airborne, indicates that an air launched cruise or ballistic missile was likely used, adding several hundred kilometres more to the reach of the fighters responsible.

Although engaging land targets over 2,250 kilometres from Israeli territory would be far from impossible, a further major challenge is that such an attack would have required Israeli fighter aircraft to operate deep inside Iran’s airspace. The density of Iran’s air defence network, and the size of its fighter fleet, despite its obsolescence, would pose serious threats to fighters crossing much of the breadth of the country for such attacks. One possibility is that F-35 fifth generation fighters in stealth configuration may have been used in the attack, and refuelled in the air beyond the reach of Iranian air defences to be able to strike Mashhad Airport. The fighter’s stealth capabilities could allow it to remains survivable, while its considerable electronic intelligence capabilities would help to avoid the known locations of Iranian air defences. Although F-35s would face significant risks if flying near heavily defended targets, such as the Natanz Nuclear Facility, airports located far from Israeli territory are likely much less lightly defended. The lack of fortifications at such facilities also allows targets there to be neutralised without the need for heavy ‘bunker buster’ gravity bombs, allowing fighters to strike from safer distances.

The Iranian Air Force previously deployed just three tankers, including two KC-747s and a single KC-707, with the latter being the only aircraft of its kind in the world. The service is one of very few in the world which fields a fighter fleet formed predominantly of aircraft using turbojet engines, rather than modern turbofans which were adopted from the 1970s. Of Iran’s sixteen fighter squadrons, just five use modern turbofan engines, with a leading shortcoming of older turbojets being their much lower fuel efficiency, thus seriously limiting the ranges of fighters such as the F-4D/E and F-5E/F that form the backbone of the fleet. Aerial tankers are thus particularly important to the fleet, and during the Iran-Iraq War were put to extensive use refuelling F-4Es for strikes on targets deep inside Iraq. With the Iranian fighter fleet itself suffering from severe limitations in its combat potential, particularly for air defence duties, the most significant consequence of the destruction of the tanker aircraft may well be as a show of force to the Iranian leadership demonstrating the extent of the Israeli Air Force’s reach.

Iran’s neglect for the procurement of modern fighter aircraft has left it in a significantly more vulnerable position during its current war with Israel and standoff with the Western world than would have otherwise been the case, with the country having previously been expected to procure modern combat aircraft after the lifting of a United Nations Arms embargo in 2020. The Chinese J-10C, which was in 2022 procured by neighbouring Pakistan, and the Russian Su-35, which has been ordered but not yet received, were considered leading contenders to modernise its fleet.