'IAF expects losses, and knows it can't destroy entire Iranian program'
By Greg Tepper April 15, 2012, 11:49 pm 615
The Times of Israel
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.
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