IAF In Action

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The Israeli Air Force (IAF; Hebrew: זרוע האויר והחלל, Zroa HaAvir VeHahalal, "Air and Space Arm", commonly known as חיל האוויר Hel HaAvir, "Air Corps") is the air force of the Israel Defense Forces. The current Commander in Chief is Aluf Elyezer Shkedy. The Israeli Air Force has approximately 1000 aircraft.
Following the Yom Kippur War, most of Israel's military aircraft have been obtained from the United States. Those included the F-4 Phantom II, A-4 Skyhawk, F-15 Eagle, E-2 Hawkeye and others.

The Israeli Air Force has also operated a number of domestically-produced types like the IAI Nesher, and later, the more advanced IAI Kfir, which were unauthorised derivatives of the French Dassault Mirage 5 (Israel bought 50 Mirage 5's from Dassault Aviation, but they were not delivered due to the French embargo during the Yom Kippur war). The Kfir was adapted to utilize a more powerful US engine, produced under license in Israel. In 1976, the IAF participated in the Operation Entebbe rescue mission in Uganda using the C-130 Hercules for transport.

During the 1980s and 1990s the IAF was equipped with a variety of additional U.S. aircraft (e.g. F-16, AH-1 Cobra, AH-64 Apache, and C-130 Hercules).
During the 1982 Lebanon War, IAF planes destroyed many Syrian air defences and shot down 100 Syrian aircraft without a single fighter lost (Syria disputes this claim). However, one IAF A-4 Skyhawk, piloted by Captain Aharon Achiaz, was lost to a PLO SA-7 missile, with the pilot being captured. IAF AH-1 Cobra helicopter gunships destroyed dozens of Syrian armored fighting vehicles and other ground targets, including some T-72 main battle tanks.

For some years after the war's official end, however, IAF AH-1 Cobras continued to mount attacks on Hezbollah and PLO positions in south Lebanon.