- Israel has used the F-35 jet throughout the genocide in Gaza, as well as in airstrikes against Iran, Lebanon and Yemen.
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Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter confirms the number of flight hours Israeli pilots have on the F-35 “is greater than that of all the pilots of the other foreign countries that were partners in developing the aircraft”.
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Comments are completely at odds with the UK government’s insistence that Israel is “minor customer” of the global F-35 jet programme.
In an interview Leiter said “The feedback from our pilots reaches Lockheed Martin. When I visited there a few weeks ago, their CEO told me that Israel’s information and developments ‘are worth many billions to my company.‘” Leiter was speaking with Israel Hayom daily, which was reported on in the Times of Israel on 16th February 2026.
The UK makes 15% of the F-35 jet. The US is the lead partner and the UK is the only Tier 1 partner. The other partners to the programme are Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway.
Israel has 48 F-35 jets, with 27 more jets on order. On 21st January 2026 Declassified reported that three new F35s were transferred from the British air base, RAF Mildenhall, to Israel. Israel is also involved in the production of the F-35 programme. In February 2026 Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) celebrated the delivery of its 350th fighter jet wings to Lockheed Martin for production of the F-35 fighter jet.
UK government comments
The UK government has been provided with extensive evidence of Israel’s use of the F-35s by Al-Haq and GLAN throughout their legal case in the UK High Court. Despite an Israeli ambassador and the CEO of Lockheed Martin confirming Israel’s central role in the F-35 programme – both as a user and developer of the F-35 jet – the UK government has repeatedly attempted to downplay Israel’s use of the jet and role in the programme.
In a letter to Dame Meg Hillier MP on 19th February 2026, Minister for the Middle East Hamish Falconer MP wrote: “The UK Government has stopped direct exports of F-35 parts for use by Israel. The only exception is for the global programme, of which Israel is a minor customer [emphasis added].”
In a letter to the Sarah Champion MP Chair of the International Development Committee, on 1st September 2025 former Foreign Secretary David Lammy wrote: “We are unaware of any possible breaches of IHL having been linked to the limited evidence of F-35 use in Gaza and it is worth remembering that, where UK-produced F-35 parts go to the global spares pool, Israel operate a very small proportion of over 1,000 F-35s in the global fleet [emphasis added].”
Use of F-35s in Gaza
As early as October – December 2023 it was reported that Israel was making heavy use of its modified F-35I Adirs. In November 2023 former IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi confirmed F-35Is were providing close air support to ground troops 200 meters away in Gaza. He stated: “We never did anything like this. With very heavy munitions, a very good connection between what the [ground] force needs and what the plane knows to give”.
In December 2023, US officials confirmed they were rushing spare parts and additional capabilities “at breakneck speed” for the F-35 to Israel from October 2023. Officials stated Israel’s F-35s have performed “absolutely outstanding” in Gaza, and that the programme could “learn a lot” from seeing F-35s used in combat.
The Israeli Air Force has modified its F-35s, in partnership with Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon’s F-35 programme, to operate in so-called “beast mode”, which allows it to carry four 2,000lb bombs. The IAF said that its aircraft are the “only F-35 to conduct strikes with this design.”
Danish NGO Danwatch revealed that an F-35 was used in July 2024 to drop three 2,000 lb bombs in an attack on a so-called “safe zone” on Al-Mawasi in Khan Younis, killing 90 Palestinians.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Arms Trade said:
“Israel is plainly not a minor customer for the F-35 programme, if it has flown more hours than any other partner country in the programme, and if the data it has generated though its genocide in Gaza is worth billions to Lockheed Martin. No other country has used the F-35 jet at near the rate that Israel has, let alone in two years of active combat. This cannot be overstated.“The comments made by Lockheed Martin and US and Israel officials over the last two and half years go beyond illustrating passive greed. Israel’s attack was immediately identified as an unprecedented opportunity by the F-35 programme to collaborate with the IDF and take the data generated by Palestinian suffering and death to test, develop, market and sell the jet.“We call on the UK government to correct the record, and admit that Israel is the key customer of the F-35 programme. We call on the government to immediately halt all transfers of F-35 parts to Israel.”
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Lockheed Martin is the biggest arms company in the world by military revenue, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The US is the largest arms exporter in the world with a 43% share of global arms exports.
