Defense News reports: TEL AVIV – Israel’s top Air Force officer on Tuesday praised the “revolutionary” operational potential of its new fifth-generation fighter – the F-35 Adir – yet warned that growing anti-aircraft threats could mean that part of its fourth-generation force could be downed in combat.
Speaking at the annual conference of Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, IAF Commander, singled out Russian-deployed S400s in Syria, which he said “brings critical capability” that could challenge Israeli operations in the region.
“Clearly we will encounter threats we never encountered before … in the air and from the ground,” Eshel said of the S400 and a spectrum of other threats posed by regional states and non-state actors.
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