An AI-generated synthetic photo full of loopholes, an air defense system crushed by technological generational gap, and a self-staged military myth.

On June 13, 2025, Israel launched the large-scale air strike "Rising Lion", turning Iran's nuclear facilities and military targets into ruins in the explosion. 78 people were killed, 329 injured, the general commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps and several nuclear scientists lost their lives, and the air defense system was virtually useless in front of F-35I fighters.

In response to the heavy losses, Iran's Tasnim News Agency claimed the next day that its air defense system had shot down two Israeli F-35I stealth fighters and captured a female pilot, also releasing "crash photos".

However, the Israeli military quickly denied it, emphasizing that all aircraft had safely returned and no pilots were missing. International military experts, after examining these "evidence", only saw an information warfare farce fabricated under the technological generational gap and battlefield defeat.

The so-called F-35 wreckage photos released by Iranian official media cannot withstand even the most basic military common sense scrutiny. The "wreckage" shown in the photos has a series of absurd features that violate the basic principles of aviation engineering.

The vertical tail design is completely wrong. The F-35 uses a double vertical tail with a swept-back design, with the vertical tails located on both sides of the engine and tilted forward. In contrast, the vertical tail in Iran's photos is a single structure and installed backwards. One could say, "If true, the entire Israeli Air Force would need to return to aviation school to relearn aerodynamics."

The photos show the engine nozzle still spraying flames, appearing in orange-red high-temperature state. In reality, when a fighter jet is shot down, the fuel system immediately cuts off, making it impossible for the engine to continue working. Even more bizarrely, the ground beneath the burning wreckage remains perfectly flat, without any impact craters or scattered debris.

The paint details are full of holes. The "Star of David," which is iconic to the Israeli Air Force, appears at the tail end in the photos, while the actual F-35I squadron insignia is located in the middle of the fuselage. The skin color presents a dark silver metallic texture, which does not match the F-35's characteristic dark gray stealth coating.

Netizens found its composition highly similar to the wreckage of a Czech MiG-21 crash in 2013, while another widely circulated image is actually an old photo from a U.S. F-35 crash in New Mexico in 2024.

Even setting aside the false evidence, Iran's ability to counter F-35s itself is a fallacy. The technological generational gap has long determined the outcome of this asymmetric confrontation.

Iran's main anti-aircraft equipment lags behind by decades. Its current "Faith-373" is essentially a reverse-engineered product of the Russian-made S-300, and its maximum detection range against F-35I stealth fighters drops sharply from the claimed 250 kilometers to less than 50 kilometers.

Iran's "Rayad" anti-aircraft missiles have interference resistance capabilities equivalent to Western standards of the 1980s. The F-35 radar cross-section is only 0.01 square meters, and Iran's existing radars already have limited detection capability for stealth targets, making them even more vulnerable to electronic warfare suppression.

Iran's air defense system's collapse during the raid is not only the result of a technological generational gap but also stems from Israel's intelligence agencies' deep infiltration and dismantling of Iran's defense system.

Mossad agents established secret drone bases within Iran. These bases were located in "sparsely populated areas, not far from Iran's air defense systems." Prior to the operation, Israel launched drones and missiles from within Iran to precisely destroy key nodes of the air defense system, clearing the way for subsequent raids.

Seventy-two hours before the raid began, Mossad agents carried out directed electromagnetic interference around the Qom nuclear facility, causing the communication systems of three air defense batteries in the area to fail completely. More fatally, surveillance footage from a radar station south of Tehran showed that six hours before the raid, the station's power system underwent a "planned maintenance" — this asymmetric destruction is essentially "pre-battlefield clearance."

The Israeli Defense Forces deployed over 200 aircraft in this operation, dropping more than 330 munitions, destroying dozens of Iran's western air defense radars and missile launchers. This立体打击completely deprived Iran of local air superiority, turning it into a sitting duck for precision strikes.

In the face of military defeat and technological inferiority, Iran's motivation to fabricate the "F-35 shoot-down" myth is fundamentally an act of desperation in information warfare.

Facing the battlefield disadvantage of bombed nuclear facilities and decapitated high-ranking officials, Iran urgently needs to shift domestic public opinion pressure through "battle results propaganda." The Revolutionary Guard Corps packaged this claim as a "great victory of the Islamic Revolution," attempting to reshape the collapsing image of military deterrence.

Iran's "F-35 shoot-down myth" has become international ridicule, with forums filled with mockery of the AI-generated photo. The real battlefield situation is tilting unfavorably for Iran: Israel announced that the "Operation Rising Lion" will continue for days, and US Middle East bases have entered a high state of alert.

Fake propaganda cannot change the fact that Iran's air defense system has been destroyed, nor can it recover the strategic loss of the fire at the Natanz nuclear facility. While Tehran's decision-makers are沉迷于information warfare illusions, Israeli F-35Is have already begun loading ammunition for the next wave of strikes.



Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7516726268503704098/

Disclaimer: The article represents the author's personal views. Please express your attitude using the buttons below.