The missile model may have helped Iran shoot down the US F-35

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on March 20 released a video from an infrared sensor tracking an aircraft shaped like an F-35 stealth fighter. A few seconds later, a shell arrived and exploded, damaging the plane. IRGC confirmed that the US F-35 fighter was “hit and severely damaged”, but did not reveal the type of weapon used.

News agency CNN Quoting two sources familiar with the matter, the F-35 had to make an emergency landing at an air base in the Middle East after “being hit by suspected Iranian fire”.

Colonel Tim Hawkins, spokesman for Central Command (CENTCOM), confirmed that a US Air Force F-35A aircraft made an emergency landing while performing a combat mission over Iran. “The plane landed safely and the pilot is in stable condition. The incident is being investigated,” he said, seemingly referring to the F-35 operator who was injured.

Military magazine Military Watch The US concluded that Iran used the Majid air defense complex, also known as AD-08, to attack the US F-35.

The Majid air defense weapon complex is a product of the Department of Defense Industry under the Iranian Ministry of Defense, first appearing in the military parade on April 18, 2021 and participating in the exercise “Velayat 1400 Sky Defender” in October 2021.

The Army Recognition research group based in Belgium said Majid is a short-range air defense complex, developed to intercept a large number of targets such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), cruise missiles, helicopters and low-flying fighters.

Majid uses the ARAS-2 tactical vehicle chassis, providing high mobility on the battlefield. Each combat vehicle is equipped with two launch tube clusters with up to 4 combat-ready missiles, placed on a 360-degree rotating platform, with an optical-electronic system in the middle to detect and lock targets.

“Majid’s sensors can simultaneously capture 4 flying objects at a maximum distance of 15 km and an angle of 0-12 degrees, to provide parameters for the missile. If combined with the Kashef-99 3-coordinate phased array radar, the target detection range can increase to 30 km,” Army Recognition said.

The system’s missile is 2.6 m long, nearly 0.16 m in diameter, weighs 75 kg and reaches a speed of about 2,470 km/h. It is equipped with a thermal imaging detector, has a maximum range of 8 km and can defeat targets at an altitude of 6 km.

“Using a thermal imaging probe, instead of radar, will reduce the Majid’s combat range. However, it allows it to track stealthy aircraft before radar but does not optimize the ability to suppress heat signals. The infrared tracking and guidance mechanism is also not affected by the enemy’s electronic warfare measures,” Military Watch said.

Thermal imaging detectors also do not emit radio signals like radar, do not activate radiation warning devices on the target aircraft and significantly limit the reaction time of enemy pilots. This also helps increase the ability of the complex to hide, avoiding the risk of being hit by anti-radar missiles.

In addition to the Majid complex, the US military news website also mentioned the possibility that Iran used shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles to injure the F-35.

Iran is said to have spent $580 million to buy 500 launch tubes and 2,500 9M336 bullets of the Russian-made 9K333 Verba shoulder-fired missile complex. The range and flight ceiling of the 9M336 are 6.5 km and 4.5 km respectively, lower than the Majid.

Verba’s advantage is that the missile uses a multispectral optical probe, with three separate sensors to receive ultraviolet, near-infrared and mid-infrared signals. This helps Verba missiles better distinguish targets from decoys, while limiting the effectiveness of countermeasures such as infrared lights and laser emitters.

The US and Israel have not lost manned fighter jets over Iran, but Iranian air defense units have shot down at least 11 US MQ-9 Reaper armed UAVs and an unknown number of Hermes 900 aircraft, one of the most modern types of UAVs in Israeli service.

Thomas Newdick and Howard Altman, editors of the American military website War Zone, pointed out that Iranian air defense systems can be easily disguised and continue to pose a significant threat. Meanwhile, the F-35 faces more and more risks, especially when performing direct attack missions and operating deeper in Iranian airspace.

“Despite the suppression efforts that the US and Israel have made, Iran still possesses mobile air defense complexes and these systems can appear anywhere, leaving pilots with very little time to react,” two US experts stated.