Live Conflict Israel-US vs Iran War (2026)

Iskander · Friday at 5:02 AM

Passenger said:
A US F-35 fighter jet made an emergency landing at US air base in the Middle East after it was struck by what is believed to be Iranian fire, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for US Central Command, said the fifth-generation stealth jet was “flying a combat mission over Iran” when it was forced to make an emergency landing. Hawkins said the aircraft landed safely, and the incident is under investigation.

“The aircraft landed safely, and the pilot is in stable condition,” Hawkins added. “This incident is under investigation.”

The incident would be the first time Iran has hit a US aircraft in the war started in late February. Both the US and Israel are flying F-35s in the conflict; the aircraft costs upwards of $100 million.

The emergency landing comes as senior US officials continue to claim widespread success in its campaign against Iran. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday morning that the US is “winning decisively” and that Iran’s air defenses have been “flattened.”

https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/iran-war-us-israel-trump-03-19-26?t=1773933632206

There's nothing to celebrate about this. So what if they damaged one F-35 on the 20th day of the war? Is there any point in celebrating when these aircraft have already destroyed a significant portion of Iran's defenses with virtual impunity?
Leaving aside the superior technical characteristics of 5th-generation aircraft, I want to ask another question: Okay, so these 10-ton stealth aircraft are completely out of range of Iranian radars and anti-aircraft missiles in the air, but they don't stay in the air forever. They spend more time on the ground. We need to intercept them on the ground. They may be invisible in the air, but on the ground, they are visible!
I understand, of course, that this proposal is not an American "rediscover," because in 2018, America fired about 40 Tomahawk missiles at just one airfield, Shayrat, in Syria, completely disabling it.

Bombing an airfield and all its infrastructure must be easier than detecting an invisible aircraft maneuvering in vast airspace. An airport is a visible object, and, by the way, it doesn't maneuver at all.
Well, of course, the Iranians probably tried. But it seems they're failing.
Why?
I think that it would be easier to solve the problem of 5th generation aircraft on the ground, not in the sky.

There's another reason to do it on the ground: in the air, you can shoot down a single fighter, but on the ground, you can shoot down all the aircraft currently on the airfield, along with all the infrastructure.

Passenger · Friday at 5:27 AM

Iskander said:
There's nothing to celebrate about this. So what if they damaged one F-35 on the 20th day of the war? Is there any point in celebrating when these aircraft have already destroyed a significant portion of Iran's defenses with virtual impunity?
Leaving aside the superior technical characteristics of 5th-generation aircraft, I want to ask another question: Okay, so these 10-ton stealth aircraft are completely out of range of Iranian radars and anti-aircraft missiles in the air, but they don't stay in the air forever. They spend more time on the ground. We need to intercept them on the ground. They may be invisible in the air, but on the ground, they are visible!
I understand, of course, that this proposal is not an American "rediscover," because in 2018, America fired about 40 Tomahawk missiles at just one airfield, Shayrat, in Syria, completely disabling it.

Bombing an airfield and all its infrastructure must be easier than detecting an invisible aircraft maneuvering in vast airspace. An airport is a visible object, and, by the way, it doesn't maneuver at all.
Well, of course, the Iranians probably tried. But it seems they're failing.
Why?
I think that it would be easier to solve the problem of 5th generation aircraft on the ground, not in the sky.

There's another reason to do it on the ground: in the air, you can shoot down a single fighter, but on the ground, you can shoot down all the aircraft currently on the airfield, along with all the infrastructure.

You are right, but the real problem is not at the war.
Iran does not initiate attacks and only defends and counterattacks, which makes them more passive when selecting attack targets. Otherwise, they could directly attack European countries that have opened their airspace to the US military.
However, Israel and the United States are not subject to any moral or legal constraints in selecting targets and means of attack.

Yasar_TR · Friday at 5:44 AM

Iskander said:
There's nothing to celebrate about this. So what if they damaged one F-35 on the 20th day of the war? Is there any point in celebrating when these aircraft have already destroyed a significant portion of Iran's defenses with virtual impunity?
Leaving aside the superior technical characteristics of 5th-generation aircraft, I want to ask another question: Okay, so these 10-ton stealth aircraft are completely out of range of Iranian radars and anti-aircraft missiles in the air, but they don't stay in the air forever. They spend more time on the ground. We need to intercept them on the ground. They may be invisible in the air, but on the ground, they are visible!
I understand, of course, that this proposal is not an American "rediscover," because in 2018, America fired about 40 Tomahawk missiles at just one airfield, Shayrat, in Syria, completely disabling it.

Bombing an airfield and all its infrastructure must be easier than detecting an invisible aircraft maneuvering in vast airspace. An airport is a visible object, and, by the way, it doesn't maneuver at all.
Well, of course, the Iranians probably tried. But it seems they're failing.
Why?
I think that it would be easier to solve the problem of 5th generation aircraft on the ground, not in the sky.

There's another reason to do it on the ground: in the air, you can shoot down a single fighter, but on the ground, you can shoot down all the aircraft currently on the airfield, along with all the infrastructure.

Good point @Iskander !
But you have also to remember that those airfields on the ground have 10 times more layered and complex air defences than any city. To overcome those defences is not a simple task. To Shayrat, the US fired 59 Tomahawk missiles. According to Russian sources 23 hit their targets.
Including UK and French missiles, there were 103 missiles’s fired at Shayrat. Some never made it to shore. But in total 71 missiles were intercepted by Syrian air defences. Even a country like Syria could defend their airbase to a certain degree. US an Israeli air bases would be much better protected.

Among The Airbases you want to destroy lie the aircraft carriers. They are the floating air bases and are even harder to hit. As well as its own AD systems, it has 3 to 4 Arleigh Burke Class destroyers and Virginia Class nuclear subs to defend it. Short of a nuclear strike, it is a bloody hard job to destroy a carrier group.

Russia: Syria air defence intercepted 71 missiles

Reports say US Tomahawk missiles used to target Syria, as UK and France deploy Tornado, Mirage and Rafale jets.

www.aljazeera.com

Soldier30 · Friday at 5:45 AM

Iran launched a cluster munition missile attack on the Israeli oil refinery in Haifa. The missile strike caused power outages in several areas of Haifa and the suburb of Kiryat Haim. The attack involved various types of missiles, possibly including heavy Khorramshahr-4 missiles.

500 · Friday at 5:57 AM

Passenger said:
Israel says Haifa oil refinery hit in Iranian missile attack

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026...hit-in-iranian-missile-attack-no-major-damage

Isreal control the media and not allow reporter to post the damage.
I still remember last year 12day war, Haifa oil refinery stopped production due to Iran missiles strike, and they usr US air refueling tanker to transfer oil.

You are projecting. Just because in your country everything is censored does not mean other countries are same.

All Israeli news channels reported it. Here even the official Israeli state TV channel posts videos about refinery hit:

https://www.kan.org.il/content/kan-news/defense/1015482/

Cluster missiles virtually impossible to intercept but their damage is minimal too.

Passenger · Friday at 6:03 AM

500 said:
You are projecting. Just because in your country everything is censored does not mean other countries are same.

All Israeli news channels reported it. Here even the official Israeli state TV channel posts videos about refinery hit:

https://www.kan.org.il/content/kan-news/defense/1015482/

Cluster missiles virtually impossible to intercept but their damage is minimal too.

Not only Cluster missiles, right?

Huelague · Friday at 6:21 AM

Saithan said:
I wonder why Iran didn't target Israels gasfields after getting bombed themselves. or the nuclear power plant in Israel. in a Tit for Tat move.

This is what I would do first. The more Persians escalates, the higher the chance of a victory. Bombing nuclear plants, Startups villages, IT companies, even the Wailing Wall. Which needs a very precision strike capability.

Huelague · Friday at 6:25 AM

Iskander said:
There's nothing to celebrate about this. So what if they damaged one F-35 on the 20th day of the war? Is there any point in celebrating when these aircraft have already destroyed a significant portion of Iran's defenses with virtual impunity?

The whole point can be a different. Maybe, now they know how to handle the F-35.

Oublious · Friday at 8:07 AM

Huelague said:
The whole point can be a different. Maybe, now they know how to handle the F-35.

LoL

They? The whole world now know what the weak point is, i hope our IRST is good what we can pick them up from at least 50km away.

Mis_TR_Like · Friday at 8:12 AM

Dude, your country is getting bombed to bits and you decide it's a good time to execute your own 19 year old champion athlete

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/world/middleeast/iran-executed-wrestler-mohammadi-hanging-protests.html

Huelague · Friday at 8:46 AM

Oublious said:
LoL

They? The whole world now know what the weak point is, i hope our IRST is good what we can pick them up from at least 50km away.

What’s the plan, to scan the whole sky with IRST to find a fighter jet.

Passenger · Friday at 9:12 AM

NPR report, F-35 made a “hard landing” and won’t be returning to service anytime soon.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2034972525222838351

Congratulation, Iranian got the first shoting down of F-35. They even not have an advanced SAM with AESA.

Peter66 · Friday at 9:27 AM

Passenger said:
NPR report, F-35 made a “hard landing” and won’t be returning to service anytime soon.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2034972525222838351

Congratulation, Iranian got the first shoting down of F-35. They even not have an advanced SAM with AESA.

Is this a seco one ore still the first one?

Passenger · Friday at 9:49 AM

Peter66 said:
Is this a seco one ore still the first one?

The 3 models of the F35(A/B/C) have been recorded as crashing due to accidents, but there is no record of them being shot down before that, I think.

And there is a good new for Isreal, F35I is the last model which have not crashed(Or not recorded).

AlperTunga · Friday at 10:08 AM

Yasar_TR said:
Good point @Iskander !
But you have also to remember that those airfields on the ground have 10 times more layered and complex air defences than any city. To overcome those defences is not a simple task. To Shayrat, the US fired 59 Tomahawk missiles. According to Russian sources 23 hit their targets.
Including UK and French missiles, there were 103 missiles’s fired at Shayrat. Some never made it to shore. But in total 71 missiles were intercepted by Syrian air defences. Even a country like Syria could defend their airbase to a certain degree. US an Israeli air bases would be much better protected.

Among The Airbases you want to destroy lie the aircraft carriers. They are the floating air bases and are even harder to hit. As well as its own AD systems, it has 3 to 4 Arleigh Burke Class destroyers and Virginia Class nuclear subs to defend it. Short of a nuclear strike, it is a bloody hard job to destroy a carrier group.

Russia: Syria air defence intercepted 71 missiles

Reports say US Tomahawk missiles used to target Syria, as UK and France deploy Tornado, Mirage and Rafale jets.

www.aljazeera.com

They would be much better protected with what? Patriots, THAAD? Iron Dome components? David’ Sling, Arrow? I dont think the protection of air fields is much better than the Israeli cities. Maybe some additional layer of point defence but that wouldnt be effective against ballistic missiles anyhow. In any case, if they have 5 layers of defense we should have 6 layers of attack capabilities. Beginning with Super Simsek, Kargi, K2, Anka-3 with ER-300 and SOM, Tayfun-4, Gezgin etc. All with sufficient numbers. Then even the best protected carrier can be saturated (including all 11 carriers that belong to Israel).

Yasar_TR · Friday at 11:25 AM

AlperTunga said:
They would be much better protected with what? Patriots, THAAD? Iron Dome components? David’ Sling, Arrow? I dont think the protection of air fields is much better than the Israeli cities. Maybe some additional layer of point defence but that wouldnt be effective against ballistic missiles anyhow. In any case, if they have 5 layers of defense we should have 6 layers of attack capabilities. Beginning with Super Simsek, Kargi, K2, Anka-3 with ER-300 and SOM, Tayfun-4, Gezgin etc. All with sufficient numbers. Then even the best protected carrier can be saturated (including all 11 carriers that belong to Israel).

It is not just with what, it is how concentrated and in abundance the defence systems would be too. Even Korkut like guns and CIWS would be effective on cruise missiles. Also point defence missiles potentially can add to the layered defences.

A city like tel Aviv has a metropolitan area of over 1500square km. A typical airbase would be between 10km2 to 20km2. (Incirlik air base is 13km2) .
Hence much easier to protect than a city, especially when you have concentrated weapon systems in hand. It is easier to saturate a city wide defence system.

A missile with an engagement parameter like ESSM, can theoretically shoot down a Brahmos or ER300 or Rampage class supersonic missiles. Anything more advanced will need Patriot, Sm3 or Arrow.

I find your enthusiasm refreshing, and fully agree with the main theme in your last sentence in ().
But saturating CSG (Carrier Strike Group) armaments will take some doing. A target constantly in motion at 30knots is not targetable with the kinds of ballistic missiles Iran has. You need sophisticated HGVs (Hypervelocity Glide Vehicles) for that.

EDIT

You have to plan your moves according to the birds in your hand not according to the birds in the bush.

Of those attack potentials only SOM is in our inventory. (Even that still not fully ready as SOM-C that is going to be used against moving sea targets is still being developed.)
Süper Simsek: not in quantity in the inventory.
Kargi : put on hold and still not in inventory.
K2 : in development stage
Anka3 : Not ready yet. Nor it’s indigenous engine.
ER300 : not in inventory yet
Tayfun 4 : initial testing to be done yet
Gezgin: we only know the name. Not itself.

Oublious · Friday at 1:33 PM

Huelague said:
What’s the plan, to scan the whole sky with IRST to find a fighter jet.

Yes, passive sensor.

500 · Friday at 1:41 PM

Huelague said:
This is what I would do first. The more Persians escalates, the higher the chance of a victory. Bombing nuclear plants, Startups villages, IT companies, even the Wailing Wall. Which needs a very precision strike capability.

The problem is that Israel and US can take out all Iranian electric oil and water infrastructures in 1 day effectively returning it to stone age.

Iran with its low accuracy rockets can only terrorize civilians.

BaburKhan · Friday at 3:14 PM

Yasar_TR said:
It is not just with what, it is how concentrated and in abundance the defence systems would be too. Even Korkut like guns and CIWS would be effective on cruise missiles. Also point defence missiles potentially can add to the layered defences.

A city like tel Aviv has a metropolitan area of over 1500square km. A typical airbase would be between 10km2 to 20km2. (Incirlik air base is 13km2) .
Hence much easier to protect than a city, especially when you have concentrated weapon systems in hand. It is easier to saturate a city wide defence system.

A missile with an engagement parameter like ESSM, can theoretically shoot down a Brahmos or ER300 or Rampage class supersonic missiles. Anything more advanced will need Patriot, Sm3 or Arrow.

I find your enthusiasm refreshing, and fully agree with the main theme in your last sentence in ().
But saturating CSG (Carrier Strike Group) armaments will take some doing. A target constantly in motion at 30knots is not targetable with the kinds of ballistic missiles Iran has. You need sophisticated HGVs (Hypervelocity Glide Vehicles) for that.

EDIT

You have to plan your moves according to the birds in your hand not according to the birds in the bush.

Of those attack potentials only SOM is in our inventory. (Even that still not fully ready as SOM-C that is going to be used against moving sea targets is still being developed.)
Süper Simsek: not in quantity in the inventory.
Kargi : put on hold and still not in inventory.
K2 : in development stage
Anka3 : Not ready yet. Nor it’s indigenous engine.
ER300 : not in inventory yet
Tayfun 4 : initial testing to be done yet
Gezgin: we only know the name. Not itself.

Do not forget the Barbaros coastal Defence System, it was succesfully tested in 2022 and in 2024 Cakir AShM was integrated and it is still not in Service !

Barry · Friday at 3:16 PM

Mis_TR_Like said:
Dude, your country is getting bombed to bits and you decide it's a good time to execute your own 19 year old champion athlete

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/world/middleeast/iran-executed-wrestler-mohammadi-hanging-protests.html

Didn't he murder a policeman?

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Israel says Haifa oil refinery hit in Iranian missile attack