F-35

The F-35 Lightning II is a family of fifth-generation stealth multirole fighters designed and built by Lockheed Martin. Three variants share a common airframe: the F-35A (conventional take-off and landing, operated by the US Air Force and most partner nations), the F-35B (short take-off/vertical landing, for the US Marine Corps and UK Royal Air Force and Navy), and the F-35C (carrier variant, for the US Navy). The programme is the most expensive weapons system in history, with a total lifecycle cost estimated above $1.7 trillion.

The aircraft combines low-observable stealth shaping, an active electronically scanned array radar, advanced sensor fusion, and the ability to operate in deeply contested airspace as both a strike platform and an electronic warfare node. It entered operational service with the US Marine Corps in 2015 and has since been delivered to 17 nations. Unit price varies by variant and lot, but averaged roughly $78 million per aircraft at Lot 15.

Note: The F-35 entity covers the base platform family. Israel operates a bespoke variant, the F-35I Adir, with Israeli-specific avionics and weapons integrations; that aircraft is tracked separately.

On 26 May 2026, the IRGC claimed its forces fired upon a US F-35 and forced it from Iranian airspace, asserting the action was retaliation for the 25 May CENTCOM strikes on Iran's Bandar Abbas naval base . CENTCOM issued no statement acknowledging the incident. No physical evidence was produced, and the claim remained unverified.

The significance of the claim, if accurate, is doctrinal: the F-35's core proposition is that its stealth reduces its radar cross-section to below the detection threshold of systems such as the Bavar-373. A credible engagement of an F-35 by Iranian air defences would represent a material challenge to that proposition and to the broader Western assumption that fifth-generation platforms operate effectively inside sophisticated threat envelopes. Whether the IRGC fired at and missed an F-35, or whether the aircraft was operating at the outer edge of Iranian missile range as a deterrent posture, carries different strategic weight. Absent CENTCOM confirmation, the operational reality remains unclear .