Posted on 06/07/2018 7:53:57 AM PDT by Poison Pill
Israeli Air Force’s interest in the Lockheed Martin F-16 was born after the Yom Kippur War when the IAF realized that, alongside the F-15 Eagle, they needed a new, advanced, relatively cheap, multirole jet.
The negotiations with the U.S. to acquire the F-16 started in 1975 and after some years of delay, caused by the Middle East tensions, the Fighting Falcon sale was finalised in 1979 as result of the Camp David peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.
The first F-16s were delivered to the IAF in 1980 and the following year, before all the Netz (as the F-16A is called by IAF) were handed over, the new Vipers took part in one of the most famous mission in Israeli Air Force history, the Operation Opera.
The operation was aimed at destroying the Iraqi Osirak nuclear plant, also called Tamuz 1, at Al Tuwaitha, 12 miles southeast of Baghdad.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaviationist.com ...
Operation Opera - I wonder if they played any music on the way in. I was fond of playing Alan Parsons while our unit was conducting a movement on the autobahn.
To bad videos are “Unavailable”. I like watching bombs hit bad guys.
And in other news: The F-16 is 37 years old.
I hear the orchestra is in rehearsals.
type: “operation opera” into youtube. Many videos
Yup...
Gotta respect Israel. They see a problem and fix the problem.
Yep. Israel knew the reactor was being built long before they strike happened. They let it get close to completion before obliterating it.
No Shiite...Flying 150-300 feet alt. over the southern Iraqi desert? I flew in a helo over that hell and was scared stiff with all the high winds!
It was a beautiful thing.
I was in grad school summer sessions and my faculty and fellow students were just $h!tt!ng themselves when the news came out.
To this day Air force B-52H crews fly low-level practice missions at or below 300 ft while flying at 350Kts. These missions include flying at those altitudes through the mountains as well as flat plains.
I know several B-52 pilots who would have to jump bridges and transmission lines because they were flying under 100ft.
Some great pilots and great story here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4BnSX7_DJs
I had the really cool experience of being buzzed by one while driving just east of the Columbia river gorge on I-5 in Eastern Washington. It was close enough and low enough that I could see a helmeted head through the cockpit window right before it made a wingtip-in-the dirt banking turn and headed back in the direction of the Fairchild air force base. It was the most amazing thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalese_cable_car_disaster_%281998%29
The low level training routes are specifically there for just those purposes. The bomber crews must have the training needed to penetrate enemy defenses if there is ever a need. These routes have been around for decades and are marked in aviation charts. It is a required part of bomber crew training to maintain their proficiency in very low level flying.
That cable car accident was due to hot-dogging and was not permitted.
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