April 15, 2012
Note publication date and consider what has occurred since that date
major Israel TV station on Sunday night broadcast a detailed report on how Israel will go about attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities in the event that diplomacy and sanctions fail and Israel decides to carry out a military strike.
The report, screened on the main evening news
of Channel 10, was remarkable both in terms of the access granted to the
reporter, who said he had spent weeks with the pilots and other
personnel he interviewed, and in the fact that his assessments on a
strike were cleared by the military censor.
No order to strike is likely to be given
before the P5+1 talks with Iran resume in May, the reporter, Alon
Ben-David, said. “But the coming summer will not only be hot but tense.”
In the event that negotiations fail and the
order is given for Israel to carry out an attack on Iranian nuclear
facilities, “dozens if not more planes” will take part in the mission:
attack and escort jets, tankers for mid-air refueling, electronic
warfare planes and rescue helicopters, the report said.
Ben-David said the Israel Air Force “does not
have the capacity to destroy the entire Iranian program.” There will be
no replication of the decisive strikes on Iraq’s Osirak reactor in 1981
or on Syria in 2007, he said. “The result won’t be definitive.” But, a
pilot quoted in the report said, the IAF will have to ensure that it
emerges with the necessary result, with “a short and professional”
assault.
Ben-David said that if negotiations break
down, and Iran moves key parts of its nuclear program underground to its
Qom facility, the IAF “is likely to get the order and to set out on the
long journey to Iran.”
“Years of preparations are likely to come to realization,” he said, adding that “the moment of truth is near.”
Ben-David interviewed several squadron
leaders, pilots and other officers. He noted that some of the IAF
personnel, “it is likely, will not return from the mission.” An officer
named Gilad said it would be “naive” to think there would be no losses.
The IAF is said to be worried about the
advanced anti-aircraft systems that Russia has sold to countries in the
region, the report said. Among those systems, the SA 17 and 22 in Syria
and Iran present a challenge.
According to the report, it’s the older
versions of the F-15 that can fly further than any other plane in
Israel’s arsenal, and this puts them on the front line of any potential
attack.
One pilot said in the report that the F-15 “is
a plane with a very wide range of operation — a combination of
relatively energy-efficient engines, and significant flightworthiness
regarding weapons and fuel.”
The IAF has a full-sized unmanned plane, the
“Eitan,” that is said to be able to fly to Iran, the report indicated.
“This plane can do all that is required of it when the order is given,” a
pilot said, without elaboration.
The attack, the report said, would presumably
trigger a war in northern Israel, with missile attacks (presumably from
the Iranian-proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon). “There will be no tranquility
and peace anywhere in Israel,” Ben-David said.
This could be the first full-scale war the IAF has fought in nearly 30 years, the report stated.
Pilots had already been told where their families would be moved, away from their bases, for safety, the report said.
Comment: I posted this for perspective only
1 comment:
I pray that God will guide to success, these brave airmen and give comfort to those families who shall bear the grave loss of battle...
May our beloved Lord protect and give substance to the people of Isreal for the battle forthwith...
May the enemies of the Jews and liberty be given a heavy and lethal blow...
And when the quiet stirs, let all bells ring in the joy and cries, that goodness has prevailed and evil kept at bay...
I cry to the heaven, may our cherished God bless Isreal and the Jewish people...In his Holy Name I pray.
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