10 Incredible Facts About the Israeli Air Force

1. The Israeli Air Force has two Hebrew names that it's known by: זרוע האויר וההלל or Z'roa HaAvir VeHahalal, literally meaning "Air and Space Arm," and חיל האויר or Kheil HaAvir, meaning "Air Corps."

2. The official insignia used on IAF aircraft is a solid blue Star of David inside a white circle.

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3. The newly established IAF was already used in Israel's War of Independence in 1948-49. In those years its fleet was made up of donated civilian planes that were converted to military use, salvaged parts from abandoned British planes, and aircraft purchased from Czechoslovakia, some of it smuggled clandestinely in parts and reassembled once in Israel.

Some of the IAF's first pilots were foreign volunteers, mainly WWII veterans from places like the US and UK who enlisted to help the new Israeli state.

4. The Israeli Air Force played a decisive role in the 1967 Six-Day War. It secured Israel's victory early on, through air superiority and by destroying much of the Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian air forces within the first hours of the war.

5. Another famous, historic wartime performance by the Israeli Air Force was in 1969-70 during the War of Attrition against Egyptian and Soviet forces. The IAF is reported to have downed 111 enemy aircraft, while losing only 4 itself.

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6. In recent decades, some of the most important and impressive missions by the IAF have involved clandestinely bombing nuclear facilities in enemy countries such as Iraq and Syria, using Mossad intelligence. This has been vital to preventing Israel's enemies from developing nuclear weapons that could be used against it.

7. Aerial warfare is not the only thing the Israeli Air Force is good at! In 1991, the IAF along with Israel's national commercial carrier El Al airlifted thousands of Ethiopian Jews to help them immigrate to Israel as part of Operation Solomon.

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8. Israel's air corps also made history in the 1990s by becoming one of the first in the world to allow female combat fighter pilots!

9. The Israeli Air Force is routinely ranked among the top in the world, not for its size but due to the skill, ingenuity, and exceptional training of its pilots.

One of its pilots, the now-retired Giora "Hawkeye" Epstein, holds the world record for the most enemy jet aircraft shot down, and the most enemy takedowns of any kind in the world since the Korean War of 1950-53.

10. The IAF today is one of the most important components that Israel has for fighting against Hamas and Hezbollah, doing reconnaissance as well as precision strikes and even dropping safety information for local civilians.

In addition, the revolutionary Iron Dome missile defense system is part of and operated by the air force under its Air Defense Division, saving countless Israeli lives with incredible accuracy!

Most recently, the IAF employed fighter jets along with the Iron Dome to thwart an aerial attack by Iran in the night of April 13-14, 2024, downing hundreds of drones and missiles in a short period of time to bravely defend Israel.

Those are our 10 favorite facts about the Israeli Air Force!

Want to learn more about the various parts of the Israel Defense Forces? Check out our posts on the IDF reserves, the Israeli Navy, the Mossad intelligence service, the Home Front Command's Search and Rescue Unit, and the IDF overall.

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