HMM: Syrian downing of F-16I begs the question: Why didn’t Israel deploy F-35s?

In early December, the Air Force declared initial operational capability of the nine F-35s now in its possession. And from the aerial activity reported by residents near its home base at Nevatim, southern Israel, the aircraft are accruing significant flight time.

Yet none of the operational F-35s were part of the eight-aircraft force package tasked with destroying an Iranian command center in central Syria. The command center was reportedly operating the unmanned Shahed 171 drone that Israel says penetrated its airspace in the early morning of Feb. 10.

Nor were they tasked to lead the follow-on wave of strikes on 12 separate Syrian and Iranian assets in the punitive operation launched later that day in response to the F-16I downing.

Perhaps these costly stealth fighters are too precious to use. Or perhaps the Israeli Air Force is not sufficiently confident in the aircraft or its pilots’ proficiency in operating the fifth-generation fighter.

The Israeli F-35I isn’t all that much more expensive than the newest F-16s the IAF flies, which have been modified in all kinds of interesting ways. So my hunch is that the IAF is still training up pilots and ground crews for its tiny force of F-35Is.

But I’m certain that the headline writer misused “begs the question.”