USAF F-35 Lands After Taking Fire Over Iran; Pilot Stable

An Air Force F-35A fighter was forced to conduct an emergency landing at a U.S. air base after being struck by ground fire during a combat mission over Iran on March 19, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps posted a video the same day purporting to show an F-35 being targeted and struck by an Iranian air defense system. Iran has developed air defense systems that can use passive infrared sensors rather than radar to target aircraft, a solution that previously proved effective in Yemen when employed by Iranian-supported Houthi rebels.

The stealthy F-35 evades radar, but infrared sensors are passive and home in on heat.

U.S. Central Command spokesman Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins said the incident is being investigated.

“We are aware of reports that a U.S. F-35 aircraft conducted an emergency landing at a regional U.S. airbase after flying a combat mission over Iran,” Hawkins said. “The aircraft landed safely, and the pilot is in stable condition.”

The emergency landing was first reported by CNN. Hawkins declined to offer further information on the incident.

The IRGC said that it “severely damaged” the F-35 in its strike, which it said it took place at about 2:50 a.m. local time. The U.S. military has not commented on possible damage to the aircraft.

The F-35 is now one of around 20 U.S. Air Force aircraft known to be damaged or destroyed in the nearly three week-old Iran war.

Three F-15E Strike Eagles were shot down by a Kuwaiti fighter in a friendly fire incident March 2, with all crew members recovered safely. On March 12, a KC-135 Stratotanker crashed in western Iraq, killing all six Airmen aboard. Another KC-135 had its tail severely damaged in the same incident but landed safely. In a March 14 social media post, President Donald Trump seemed to confirm that at least one KC-135 was damaged on the ground by an Iranian strike on Saudi Arabia.

Air & Space Forces Magazine has also confirmed about a dozen MQ-9 Reaper drones have been lost in the conflict, though those losses have not been publicly announced.