News / Palestine

Israel grounds F-35 fighter jets, citing US-reported defects

Sunday, 31 July 2022 10:24 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 31 July 2022 10:33 AM ]

An Israeli air force F-35 Lightning II fighter jet performs during a ceremony at the Hatzerim base in the Negev desert on June 23, 2022. (Photo by AFP)

Israel has put a halt on its stealth fighter F-35 aircraft’s activities, citing a US-reported discovery of defects in the warplane’s pilot ejection system.

The Israeli regime’s air force announced in a statement that it would ground its advanced F-35 fighters for training flights, a day after the United States reported to have discovered a problem with the stealth jets’ ejector seats.

The statement said the aircraft would undergo inspections for a few days and that any individual F-35 operations would be conducted by special authorization of the air force chief.

“The examinations must be done in a strict and thorough manner in order to return the fleet to full competence while maintaining a high safety standard,” the statement added.

The announcement was made after the US Air Force said on Friday that it was temporarily grounding its F-35 fleet over a problem with the cartridges used to blast out the ejector seats in the event of an emergency.

The US Air Force said the possible defects in the explosive cartridges occurred on three American military aircraft, including the F-35, which forced a temporary halt to some US operations.

Tel Aviv has agreed to purchase at least 50 F-35 fighter jets from the US defense contractor Lockheed Martin. The regime has so far received 33 aircraft and the remaining planes are slated to be delivered in batches of twos and threes until 2024.

Israel gets F-35 fighter jets from US in first under Biden

Three more F-35 fighter jets arrive in Israel’s Nevatim Airbase from the United States.

Large fire breaks out near Israeli military base

In a separate development on Saturday, Israeli media said a large fire had started near the Mitkan Adam military base and was raging near the central Israeli city of Modiin.

According to Israel’s fire and rescue services, strong winds were spreading the fire toward the nearby Neot Kedumim nature reserve and 21 firefighting teams have been sent to battle the blaze, along with four airplanes and a helicopter.

The firefighting teams were reportedly facing problems with accessing the site of the fire due to strong winds and most of their efforts were put into preventing the spread of the blaze.

The cause of the fire was unclear yet, with firefighters saying there were no reports of casualties.

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