By Terry Lloyd
In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, U.S. defense contractors set out to design fighter jets with a single mission in mind: air superiority. Two icons emerged from that effort. For the Navy, it was the F-14 Tomcat—later immortalized in Top Gun. For the Air Force, it was the F-15 Eagle, engineered to dominate the skies.
Thanks to advances in radar and missile technology, these aircraft were the first to track and destroy enemy planes at beyond visual range. But it was not American pilots who proved this concept in combat. That distinction fell to Israel.
In 1979, four Israeli F-15 Baz (“Falcon”) fighters engaged eight Syrian MiG-21s over Lebanon. Three enemy aircraft were destroyed—two with Israeli Python missiles, adapted from the U.S.-made AIM-9 Sidewinder, and a third in a classic cannon dogfight. The victory validated not only Israel’s pilots but also the U.S. decision to return an internal gun to its fighters, something American pilots had sorely missed in Vietnam.
Over the next two years, Israeli pilots went on to shoot down at least a dozen more Syrian MiG-21s and even a pair of the formidable Soviet-built MiG-25s. The message to Moscow was unmistakable: a handful of F-15s could effectively close off large sectors of airspace, giving ground forces unprecedented protection.
Israel would later adopt a customized version of the F-15, the F-15I Ra’am (“Thunder”), paralleling the American F-15E Strike Eagle but with enhancements reflecting Israel’s battlefield experience.
To complement the F-15, the U.S. introduced the lighter, more affordable F-16 Fighting Falcon. Agile in dogfights but also highly effective in ground attack, the F-16 quickly became the workhorse of smaller allied air forces across Europe and Asia.
Israel again became the proving ground. In 1981, Israeli F-16s carried out the world’s first combat mission for the aircraft: the daring strike on Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor. Since then, Israeli pilots have been credited with 53 of the F-16’s roughly 75 air-to-air kills worldwide. Israel would eventually field its own specialized version, the F-16I Sufa (“Storm”), heavily modified for its defense needs.
By the time the United States launched the Gulf War in 1991, American aircrews had the advantage of flying aircraft and employing tactics already refined by Israeli combat experience. After every engagement, Israeli after-action reports were shared with U.S. manufacturers and the Pentagon, shaping upgrades to the aircraft themselves.
The Israeli F-15I and F-16I embodied this partnership, with design changes born out of years of Israeli dogfights, missile strikes, and operational improvisation.
Today, that collaboration continues with the F-35I Adir (“Mighty One”), Israel’s customized version of America’s fifth-generation stealth fighter. In a future conflict with Iran, the lessons of decades past suggest it will once again be Israel that demonstrates just how far U.S. aircraft can go.
Terry Lloyd has been a freelance journalist and writer since 2019. Previously, he spent four decades in military and civil aviation and has lived and worked in Europe, Central America, and Asia. See his previous Wingate peice here
