"Next Mission Is Waiting For You": Israel Commander To F-35 Pilot On Radio

These things usually appear in memoirs, long after wars and battles end. One such moment likely unfolded today, if the details shared by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) are true.

The context is the IAF's announcement that an F-35I 'Adir' fighter shot down an Iranian YAK-130 over the capital Tehran, in what was billed as the US-origin stealth fighter's first air-to-air kill of another jet.

Hours later, the IAF in a post on X in Hebrew shared what it claimed was an exchange between IAF commander Major General Tomer Bar and the F-35I pilot over the successful kill.

"The historic downing over Tehran skies is an expression of the Israeli Air Force's strength and your personal determination. I am proud of you all. Return in peace. The next mission is already waiting for you," a voice claimed to be of the IAF chief said in an audio shared in the official X handle.

מפקד חיל-האוויר: ״ההפלה ההיסטורית מעל שמי טהרן היא ביטוי לעוצמתו של חיל האוויר ולנחישות האישית שלך. המשימה הבאה כבר מחכה לכם״

מצורפת שיחת מפקד חיל-האוויר, אלוף תומר בר, עם טייס האדיר (F35I) שהפיל לראשונה מטוס קרב איראני בשמי טהרן: pic.twitter.com/N5JnHXEl45

— Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) March 4, 2026

The YAK-130 is no match for the stealth fighter jet F-35, which has some of the best avionics and weapons powered by the latest tech.

The Iranian jet was essentially a two-seat combat training aircraft for basic and advanced pilot training. Conceptualised by Russia's Yakovlev Design Bureau, it flew for the first time in 1996.

The air battles in the skies above Iran and other Gulf nations are some of the biggest in recent years. The airspace is buzzing with drones and jets, scanned by ground-based radars, ever ready to launch their missiles.

The US lost three F-15E Strike Eagles to three missiles fired by an F/A-18 Super Hornet owned by ally Kuwait in a friendly fire incident. This showed the complexity of the battlespace.

This evening, two rounds of air raid sirens blared in quick succession in Israel's Jerusalem after the military said it had detected two missile barrages incoming from Iran. It said air defence systems were "operating to intercept the threat."

In a separate statement shortly after the first salvo was announced, the military said that "several launches... from Lebanon toward Israeli territory were successfully intercepted after sirens sounded in central Israel."

Lebanon was dragged into the regional war on Monday when the pro-Iran Hezbollah group launched an attack on Israel, saying it wanted to "avenge" the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei during US-Israeli strikes, sparking Israeli retaliation.