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Enthusiast Joined: Oct 20, 2006 Posts: 88 Status: Offline

The Washington Post has posted a video from the CIA, describing the Syrian nuclear weapons site that the Israelis bombed last September:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 03257.html

According to an Aviation Week article published last November, the Israeli raid was carried out by F-16I fighter-bombers, using Litening targeting pods and Spice-2000 air-to-ground munitions.

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Enthusiast Joined: Apr 09, 2005 Posts: 23 Status: Offline

Read the books "Bullseye One Reactor" and "Raid On The Sun" about the Israeli attack on Osirak in the early 80's. Interesting stuff with the pilots version of the attack.

looking forward to hear the Israeli version of the raid in Syria and wondering if/when Iran will get the same treatment.

By the way, I was pretty sure that they used the F-15I and not the F-16I in Syria.

Enthusiast Joined: Oct 19, 2006 Posts: 88 Status: Offline

guy@rdaf.dk wrote:

By the way, I was pretty sure that they used the F-15I and not the F-16I in Syria.

Early reports in the general media reported that the raid was carried out by F-15Is. The Aviation Leak report appears to be more convincing, however, pointing out that as the newest addition to Israel's air force, the F-16Is carry the latest edition of the Litening targeting pod - which the F-15Is don't.

I can't remember if it was military.com or this site but they did say it was F-16I's. I can't remember the details but I thought they said something about also using a ground laser but I'm not sure how the ground forces got so deep in Syria. But I do remember the day of the bombing North Korea condemned the attack. Strange. We'll just have to wait a few years before a book comes out to know everything. What I really want to know is how did Israel find out about it.

Newbie Joined: Oct 21, 2006 Posts: 18 Status: Offline

also, it was reported at the time the strike force either egressed via Turkey or even came in that way as well

Enthusiast Joined: Oct 19, 2006 Posts: 88 Status: Offline

The two articles from Aviation Week (Nov 5 and Nov 26, 2007) offers what is perhaps the best picture currently available of how the strike was carried out.

Based upon the Aviation Week articles, the Israeli air strike was carried out by F-16I fighter-bombers, equipped with Litening III targeting pods - which the Israeli F-15Is still lack. The strike employed Spice 2000 precision munitions, which rely on an electronic imaging system to zero-in on their target. The Spice weapon was reportedly pre-programmed using an image of the Syrian site obtained from Israel's Ofeq 7 spy satellite, which it could use to obtain a positive ID on its target.

The attack on the Syrian nuclear facility was reportedly preceded by a strike on a single Syrian radar installation at Tal al-Abuad, near the Turkish border. This air strike, combined with an Israeli-developed EW package, ensured that the Syrians never knew when or where the Israeli aircraft were at any given moment.

As should be evident from the CIA-provided video summary, the Israelis had excellent intelligence regarding the nuclear reactor site, including detailed photographs obtained from both within the reactor compound - and even inside the reactor itself - as it was being built.

Salute!

Wow, what a great briefing.

A well-known analyst on NPR guessed this morning that details were withheld in order for the "spy" that took all the pics within the facility could go to ground. I tend to agree with him.

I go with Vipers for the attack. Better range and can go offensive A2A if needed. Smaller and lower RCS. "there must be 50 ways ......"

Even without cosmic PGM's, the IAF proved they could do it with dumb bombs and CCIP back in early 80's. As I trained more than one of those pilots on that raid, I would place my faith in the Vipers. We only had one class of IAF folks, but they trained all the others, and we are likely on the 3rd generation by now. Somehow I have a bond with the newbies that carried off the mission.

unlike Iran, the Syrians appear to have counted upon some "raw material" to use the breeder reactor. So the source was likely N Korea. Once you get a few dozen pounds of the enriched stuff, it only takes a few months to get the plutonium. Go see what U.S.A. did in Washington in 1944. The Hiroshima bomb was the 235 variety, easy to employ once you have 20-30 pounds of the stuff. All later ones were Pu, although we used U-235 for "helpful" purposes on later nukes.

Due to international inspections, the Persians are doing it the hard way, as the U.S. did in Manhatten days. If those suckers could get their hands on some high-grade stuff, they could have a PU bomb in months, not years. just as the Syrians were attempting to do.

The enrichment process is expensive and slow. When Gen Groves and his scientists realized that "burning" good old 238 and some 235 that you could get 239, the rest was a piece of cake. Until then, they were getting a few grams of 235 per day using thousands of centrifuges and diffusion filters. With the breeders, they could get POUNDS of 239 within a short time.

We must all realize that So-damned-insane had the $$$ and such to get help from the N Korean folks. Hell, he could have bought some nukes out in front. Somehow, I feel that he would lose face unless he could do it on his own, much as the current Iranian effort.

What puzzles me is what were the Syrians gonna do with the Pu? Sell it to the Iranians? Build their own bombs? Give a bomb to Al-Queda?

Scary, folks

Gums sends ....

P.S. There is no classified info in this epistle. There is conjecture on my part, but it is "informed" conjecture.

Scary, isn't it?

Enthusiast Joined: Oct 19, 2006 Posts: 88 Status: Offline

In case anyone didn't see it, there was a 12-minute segment on 60 minutes this past week, on the Israeli Air Force:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/ ... tpop_story

Some great footage of the F-16I in that segment.

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CIA Video of Syrian Site Bombed by Israeli F-16s