On March 19, Iran did the unthinkable, becoming the first country ever to strike a fifth-generation stealth fighter jet.
While the US Air Force F-35 aircraft managed to make an emergency landing at a US military base in the Middle East, the jet has already suffered irreparable damage to its reputation.
Iran showed the world that the most produced fifth-generation fighter jet, over 1300 F-35s have been delivered by Lockheed Martin, and ordered by 19 countries, might be invisible, but it is certainly not invincible.
Notably, Iran achieved this feat when most of its air defense assets, according to President Donald Trump, had already been obliterated.
In fact, one reason the F-35 was flying deep inside Iranian territory, rather than launching standoff missiles at range, was the confidence that most of the enemy air defenses had already been hit.
“We’re flying wherever we want. Nobody is even shooting at us,” Trump boasted on March 17. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth further said Iran’s air defenses have been “flattened”.
This, along with the F-35’s superior stealth, made the jet invisible and invincible, or so the pilot thought. However, the F-35 pilots did not take into account one lurking threat, the Product-358 of Iran.
“Product 358”, also known as the 358 missile or SA-67, is an Iranian-developed loitering surface-to-air missile (SAM) designed primarily as a low-cost counter to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs/drones), helicopters, and other slow- or low-flying aerial threats.
It is often described as a hybrid weapon, part missile and part “kamikaze” or loitering munition. Sometimes, it is also called a “drone-based air defense” system. After launch, it can patrol or circle in designated airspace while autonomously searching for targets, then dive in to intercept.
The missile is initially launched by a solid-fuel rocket booster, which gets separated after burning out. The missile, then, in its cruise or loitering phase, is powered by a small turbojet engine.
It is equipped with an infrared (IR)/electro-optical seeker for terminal homing. This passive system means it emits no radar signals, making it “silent” and harder for targets to detect via radar warning receivers.
Though the USAF investigation into the incident is not yet complete and Iran has not disclosed which weapons it used to target the F-35 jet, among defense and security analysts, there is growing consensus that the Iranian missile that hit the F-35 was an Iranian Product 358 missile, a curious and genuinly ingenious crossover between a traditional surface-to-air (SAM) missile and a loitering munition.
For instance, Dr. Can Kasapoğlu, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, described the 358 loitering munition as a “natural culprit” for the F-35 hit, highlighting its passive infrared seeker that locks onto engine heat at short range without emitting radar signals, thus bypassing the F-35’s radar-warning receivers.
Similarly, former Indian Air Force fighter pilot Vijainder K Thakur says, “It is hard to predict the contours of future threats. I, for one, am sure that the F-35 that was damaged by an Iranian missile, presumed to be Product 358, did not recognize the drone missile hybrid as a threat.”
He emphasized that the F-35’s sensors likely failed to classify the low-signature loitering hybrid as a threat in time.
Thakur makes a pertinent point about the F-35 not recognizing “the drone missile hybrid as a threat,” since the US was aware of the missile and its characteristics at least since 2020, when, for the first time, it encountered this unusual missile-drone hybrid in Yemen with the Houthis.
In fact, the US seized these missiles way back in 2020 when it intercepted an Iranian weapons shipment to the Houthis in Yemen.
In a February 2020 New York Times article, this interception and the new missile were described in detail.
“In a news briefing, Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesman for Central Command, declined to comment on how the missiles worked. But a military official familiar with the weapons, referred to as 358 missiles, described them as cruise missiles that are designed to avoid United States defensive measures and that can down American military helicopters, as well as the tilt-rotor MV-22 Osprey.”
“The missiles consist of three parts: two motors and an explosive warhead. The weapon can be assembled after shipment and fired from a crude launcher on the ground. Once the missile is fired and traveling fast enough, a solid-fuel boost motor falls away, and a cruise motor takes over; at that point, the weapon flies in a figure-eight pattern and looks for targets,” the article said, detailing the unique aspects of the missile and highlighting its loitering characteristics.
The article also highlighted the missile’s heat-seeking capabilities.
“A dozen infrared lenses arranged in a ring around the missile are believed to be able to defeat heat-seeking countermeasures that coalition helicopters typically use,” it warned.
In 2021, Iraqi authorities also said they had recovered at least one of these missiles near Tuz Khurmatu Air Base.
Some two years later, in 2023, the Product 358 once again generated headlines when Iran showed the missile to Russians, who were apparently impressed by its unique characteristics and capabilities.
Then, in November 2023, Hezbollah attacked Israeli army UAVs using Product 358 in Lebanon.
“The missile known as the ‘358’ is a loitering anti-aircraft missile that combines the abilities of a ‘kamikaze drone’ and a surface-to-air missile,” Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported at the time.
The US Navy was also repeatedly seizing Product 358 missiles in the Red Sea while intercepting Iranian weapons shipments to Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The missile was first seized by the US Navy in 2019. Further shipments were seized in 2020 and 2022. In 2021, a 358 missile was found near an American base in Iraq. In June 2021, a 358 reportedly downed an American Scan Eagle UAV above Yemen.
In November 2023, Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei visited an arms industry complex where he was shown a larger, more advanced version of the 358 with a range of 150 kilometers.
In 2024, Product 358 was in the news for intercepting the Turkish drone Aksungur over Syrian airspace.
In March this year, when the US and Israel had launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran, Defense Security Asia had reported how Product 358 is becoming a constant headache for the US and Israeli drones, such as the MQ-9 Reaper and Hermes-900.
“The system represents a departure from traditional surface-to-air missile doctrine because it functions not as a reactive interceptor awaiting radar cueing, but as a persistent aerial hunter capable of autonomously searching designated patrol zones for targets such as MQ-9 Reaper and Hermes-900 platforms,” it said.
According to reports, the US has already lost over 15 MQ-9 Reaper drones in this war, and product 358 missiles could have played a prominent role in these interceptions.
However, despite the widespread use of these missiles by Iran in the current war, the USAF failed to anticipate that the missiles could also be effective against stealthy F-35 jets.
The danger the missile posed to slow-moving drones was well known for at least five years; however, security experts were shocked by the missile’s success, even against a stealthy F-35 fighter jet.
While the F-35 managed to make an emergency landing, Iran has exposed the vulnerabilities of the fighter jet, which will cost the US taxpayers over US$2 trillion in its lifecycle costs, making it one of the most expensive weapons development programs ever.
The Product 358 missile’s cost is not officially disclosed, but according to various reports, it costs less than US$90,000, making for an ultimate David vs. Goliath battle.
The missile is compact and can be launched from mobile trucks, making its use by non-state actors simple.
Its success against the F-35, NATO’s frontline fighter jet, will reverberate not just in the Middle East but also in the Pacific.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK.
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