For the first time since 2006, the Israeli Air Force has lost a manned aircraft in combat. The F-16I fell victim to a Syrian surface-to-air missile in a complex game of cat and mouse over northern Syria and the Golan Heights.
COMBAT REPORT // F-16I SHOOTDOWN
IN THE EARLY hours of February 10, an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Air and Space Force (IRGCASF) Saeghe unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) — a reverseengineered version of the
US-made RQ-170 Sentinel — was intercepted and shot down by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) deep inside Israeli airspace over the Golan Heights.
According to unnamed sources within the IRGCASF, this was the first combat mission for the UAV in question. The IRGC had apparently planned to show video footage recorded during the sortie on Iranian state media hours before propaganda rallies marking the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution on February 11.
The decision to launch this inaugural surveillance mission by a Saeghe UAV reportedly came from high-ranking IRGC commanders. The drone was one of 12 examples delivered to the IRGCASF since October 2016. However, the Saeghe UAV has limited reconnaissance capabilities in comparison with more conventional IRGCASF UAVs such a…
