US Confession: “Yemen was close to shooting down an F-35”
US officials have expressed US alarm over a new Yemeni defense development that could double its losses and defeats in Yemen.
The website “Task & Purpose,” specializing in US military affairs, published statements from a US official confirming that the Yemeni armed forces came close to hitting an F-35 in the final days of the aggression against Yemen.
The US official said that the Yemenis fired on a US military F-35 during recent operations, indicating that the Yemeni defense development was among the factors that forced Trump to declare surrender and halt the aggression against Yemen. He added that “the Yemeni missile came close enough to the aircraft for the pilot to evade.”
The US website also quoted statements in this regard from an official at the Stimson Center named “Grazer,” who said: “It would be an absolute disaster if the US military lost one of its expensive aircraft of this type to the Yemenis.”
He emphasized that the Yemeni Armed Forces’ targeting of this type of aircraft was surprising, expressing concern about the escalation of the situation.
Forbes magazine, in turn, commented on the matter, stating in a report: “With the Yemenis demonstrating their ability to threaten F-35 fighters, the possibility of Israeli aircraft of the same model being exposed to similar fire is real and will have repercussions for the Israeli military.”
The magazine added that “the fall of the F-35 into the hands of the Yemenis, whose air defenses were thought to be improvised and fragile, would have been a major embarrassment and negatively impact future export deals, especially since it is the only stealth aircraft exported by the United States.”
It noted that “the downing of an Israeli aircraft of this type over Yemen would be a huge propaganda victory for the Yemenis.”
The magazine noted that “the possibility of losing or capturing a pilot in Yemen was a nightmare that the US administration sought to avoid.”
In the same context, a US official told The War Zone website that an F-35 fighter jet was forced to maneuver to avoid being hit by Yemeni surface-to-air missiles. He explained that the Yemeni missiles came close enough that the American fighter jet had to maneuver and flee.
He pointed out that damaging a US military fighter jet was a major victory for the Yemenis, which prompted Washington to use B-2 stealth aircraft and long-range munitions, a move that reveals more real concerns about air defenses than has been publicly acknowledged.
The American website, which specializes in military affairs, acknowledged that the Yemeni armed forces boast that most of their arsenal of missiles and drones is manufactured locally within Yemen, stressing that they have indeed demonstrated a significant capacity to produce and develop weapons within the country.
He added: “Sometimes we are surprised by what the Yemeni armed forces do and sit back to guess how they did it. Although we are technologically superior, we are shocked by the level of their weapons and their highly effective military innovations.”
These statements and reports come in the wake of the significant defensive advances achieved by the Yemeni Armed Forces, including the downing of a large number of MQ-9 spy drones and the deployment of combat tactics that contributed to the downing of three advanced F-18s. This is in addition to a message from Supreme Commander Field Marshal Mahdi al-Mashat regarding the imminent arrival of news of the B-2 stealth bomber.