Does a TikTok video depict Yemen declaring ownership of Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets? No, that's not true: The video captures an air demonstration squadron by the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds at the 2022 Aviation Nation airshow at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada. Yemen neither possesses Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets nor has it officially declared ownership of them.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok by @user9360245904097 on December 22, 2023, with an overlay text in Arabic translated into English by Lead Stories staff, reading:
Watch Yemen declaring the ownership of Lockheed Martin F-35 and surprising the world.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Dec 26 17:42:51 2023 UTC)
The claim was widely shared on TikTok, as seen here, here, and here.
On December 26, 2023, Lead Stories staff conducted a reverse Google image search (archived here), and the results led to a video (archived here) on YouTube published by @joeleickhoff2211 on November 15, 2016, titled "2016 U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds Nellis Air Show." The video is not the same as the one circulating on TikTok, but it shares a significant resemblance in terms of the jets and the landscape.
Therefore, Lead Stories staff conducted a Google search (archived here) using the keywords "U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds Nellis Air Show" and "airshowstuff," considering the presence of the "airshowstuff" watermark on the TikTok videos. The results led to a video (archived here) published on YouTube by @AirshowStuffVideos on November 18, 2022, titled "USAF Thunderbirds 2022 Final Performance! - Nellis AFB Airshow 2022." The 26:23-minute-long video on YouTube contains the segment circulating on TikTok between the 25:24 mark and the 25:57 mark.
This is what the video looked like on YouTube at the time of writing:
(Source: YouTube screenshot taken on Wed Dec 27 09:36:32 2023 UTC)
The original video on YouTube is accompanied by the following caption, in English:
The US Air Force Thunderbirds closed out their airshow season at the 2022 Aviation Nation airshow at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada. This video combines footage from their Saturday and Sunday performances.
Lead Stories staff conducted a Google news search index search (archived here) on December 26, 2023, using the keywords "Yemen," "F-35," "Lockheed," and "Martin." However, the results did not reveal any credible sources confirming Yemen's ownership of F-35 fighter jets. Furthermore, Lead Stories checked Lockheed Martin's F35.com website (archived here), and Yemen is not listed among the countries (archived here) that own F-35 fighter jets.
