Posted on 01/06/2005 9:21:30 AM PST by IAF ThunderPilot
Concerned that the US or Israel may be planning an air strike against its nuclear facilities, Iran has beefed up its air defenses around various nuclear sites, Israeli security sources have told The Jerusalem Post. Iran is also said to be intermittently pointing its Shihab rockets in the general direction of Israel.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stressed Tuesday that Israel has no intention of leading any air strike on Iran, and believes that the US-led international diplomatic effort to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions is the only appropriate path at this stage.
Further underlining Teheran's concerns, an Iranian newspaper reported Wednesday that US warplanes had flown over its nuclear facilities near the borders with Iraq and Afghanistan over the past few days. The US aircraft that entered Iranian air space included F-16 multi-role fighters and F/A-18 attack jets, according to a report in the Aftab newspaper.
The aircraft were said to have flown at high altitude and, according to the Iranian report, appeared to have been sent on reconnaissance missions over Iran's nuclear sites, particularly in the southwestern province of Khuzestan. The intrusions, it said, were also possibly designed to assess Iran's air-defense capabilities.
A few weeks ago, the Iranian Army chief, Gen. Muhammad Salimi, said his forces, led by the air force, had been ordered to stand ready to defend the country against any military strike targeting it nuclear sites.
"The air force has been ordered to protect the nuclear sites, using all its power," he was quoted as saying.
And in late December, Iranian Air Force chief Brig. Karim Qavami was quoted as having ordered his forces to open fire and shoot down any unidentified aircraft violating the country's airspace.
"Given that the intrusion of enemy aircraft over Iran's airspace is possible, all fighter jets of the country have been ordered by the army chief to shoot them down in the event of sighting them," he was quoted as saying.
The Israeli security sources told the Post that Teheran has begun to step up protection of its nuclear facilities immediately on agreeing to European demands that it suspend a uranium enrichment program last November.
"They really believe that the United States and maybe Israel will attack them, so they are improving their defenses," said one security source.
Despite the announced freeze in the program, the Israeli sources said, Iran's secret nuclear program continues to hum along; Teheran is determined to enrich uranium to make nuclear bombs.
Ra'anan Gissin, a spokesman for Sharon, confirmed that Iran is maintaining "a secret program, corroborated also by American intelligence, to produce enriched uranium." This clandestine "fuel-cycle" effort, he said, is the "critical element... the one factor that will determine when the program comes to fruition, when you can build a bomb."
If the international community, led by the US, maintains its diplomatic focus on the "fuel-cycle effort,' he said, "then that could... perhaps delay the necessity to use any other option.
"At this stage," Gissin stressed, "we don't think that the military option is the option that should be used. There are still sufficient measures that can be taken and must be taken before you come to the conclusion that everything's lost... You still have time," he said, though "not much."
And even if all else failed, Gissin added, "we are not going to lead" any resort to military force.
Rather than missile delivery of a nuclear warhead, Gissin said the more immediate "nightmare scenario," if Iran did obtain "nuclear-upgraded material,' is that it would be "able to assemble a dirty bomb, strap it to a couple of suicide bombers... and send them."
The security sources said that, at the moment, the Iranians do not have the capability to arm their medium-range Shihab-3 rockets with nuclear warheads. "We assess that this won't happen for at least three years or more," said one source.
A warhead weighing a ton would reduce the current Shihab-3's range by between 250-300 kilometers, thus removing Israel from its 1,300-km. range. At present, these rockets are estimated to have a 500-600 kilogram conventional warhead.
Gissin said the Shihabs were ultimately intended to achieve a range of 2,500 km., which would bring Europe into range. Asked whether Shihabs were intermittently focused on Israel, he said, in "the general direction, that's true." He noted that, at present, "they do have some problems with the guidance system, but no doubt they will solve them."
The Israeli security source described the present Iranian air defenses as "good." It is known that Soviet-origin anti-aircraft systems have recently been deployed around the 1,000 megawatt Busher nuclear reactor.
Iran's air defense systems also features Russian SA-2, SA-5, SA-6 and shoulder-launched SA-7 missiles, according to the Military Balance prepared by Tel Aviv University's Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies. The Iranians also have aged US-made Hawk missiles and have been seeking to purchase the sophisticated S-300P from Russia.
A report from the Middle East Newsline Web site said Iran has also requested that India sell it a radar system, known as the Super Fledermaus, which is designed to detect low-flying objects, like unmanned aerial vehicles.
The radar system is produced by Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) under license from its American designer Ericsson Radar Electronics. The US is pressuring New Delhi not to make the sale.
And for us it'd be a great way to test out the new F-15I's and F-16I's.
Don't forget the Popeye Turbo sublaunched cruise missile.The multiplicity of targets means that just aircraft won't do.
True, true!
Well also dont forget that Israel just bought some 5,000 (if I am right) bunker penetrating bombs from the USA.
Those bombs are for use of bombers, and 5,000 bombs is a heavy number- so I would guess that a primary attack will be with those bombs in the "usual" way.
Here is a good info about the Popeye Turbo:
In May 2000 Israel is reported to have secretly carried out its first test launches from two German-built Dolphin-class submarines of cruise missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. The missiles launched from vessels off Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean are said to have hit a target at a range of about 1,500 kilometers. Israel is reported to possess a 200kg nuclear warhead, containing 6kg of plutonium, that could be mounted on cruise missiles.
Israel has reportedly developed an air-launched cruise missile that could be operational by 2002, called the Popeye Turbo. The Popeye Turbo, with a range that is variously reported at between 200 km and 350 km, would appear to represent a turbo-jet powered cruise missile that may incorporate avionics and other components developed for the Popeye family of missiles. The AGM-142 HAVE NAP is a variant of the Israeli Air Force "Popeye" missile, which uses a solid propellant rocket motor. The Popeye II, also known as the Have Lite, is a smaller missile with more advanced technology. Designed for deployment on fighter aircraft, Popeye II has a range of 150 kilometers.
The Popeye Turbo missile is probably similar to if not identical with the Israeli submarine-launced cruise missile carried on the Dolphin-class submarines. The baseline Popeye missile with a range of 45 miles has a diameter of 21 inches, and is nearly 16 feet long. For comparison, the American MK-48 heavy torpedo is 21 inches in diameter, and 19 feet long, while the BGM-109 Tomahawk SLCM is 20.4 inches in diameter and 20.5 feet long [including the booster motor], and the Russian SS-N-21 SLCM is similar in configuration and dimensions to the American Tomahawk.
The reported range of 1,500 km for the SLCM tested in May 2000 is several times greater than the previously reported range for the Popeye Turbo. However, the Popeye Turbo is a poorly attested missile, and the open literature provides little information on this system. Indeed, because of the small size of the vehicle and the limited testing program to date, it is entirely possible that even the US intelligence community has only limited insight into the capabilities of this system. There is no particular reason to doubt that Israel could develop a variant of the Popeye Turbo with a range of 1,500 km, simply by lengthening the fuel tank associated with a 300-350 km variant reported by US intelligence. At present it is not possible to determine whether the US intelligence has under-estimated the range of this missile, or whether news reports have over-estimated the missile's range. The longer range reported in June 2000 is certainly consistent with Israeli targetting requirements.
It is generally agreed that these submarines are outfitted with six 533-millimeter torpedo tubes suitable for the 21-inch torpedoes that are normally used on most submarines, including those of the United States. Some reports suggest that the submarines have a total of ten torpedo tubes -- six 533-millimeter and four 650-millimeter. Uniquely, the Soviet navy deployed the Type 65 heavy-weight torpedo using a 650-millimeter tube. The four larger 25.5 inch diameter torpedo tubes could be used to launch a long-range nuclear-capable submarine-launched cruise missile (SLCM).
I think that they must have missed our election in Nov. HELLO it is GWB not JFK that has his finger on the trigger. LOL
All I can say is that the good guys (the US and Israel) better start doing something awfully fast - especially with those Mad Mullah's missiles pointing towared Israel (and some of them likely pointing toward American and British forces in Iraq). This is the time for 1967 and 1981, not 1938.
"This is the time for 1967 and 1981, not 1938."
You have no idea how right you are!
I dont know what Isreal is worried about. If Iran ever tried to nuke them, wouldnt they also be nuking thier Palestinian Muslim brothers? Last time I checked, nuclear weapons did not have the ability to distinguish between Muslims & Zionists.
Don't forget - Muslims aren't exactly shy when it comes to killing their own, however, by nuking Israel, they would also be hurting Palestine and thus, eliminating their built in excuse for being such b*st*rds in the first place, so it seems to be a lose-lose situation. However, that wouldn't stop Iran from using it against US troops, or someplace in Europe, or North America itself.
I don't trust any Iranians as far as I can throw them - they act all assimilated when they come here, but scratch them a little and their hate of white people in general and their hatred of Jews and Americans is very strong. Given all of the Iranians and their B.S. attitudes that I have encountered both in Canada and the States, I would derive a certain pleasure in seeing them get a good ass-kicking, and believe me, I've had some pretty nasty run ins with Iranians , they are not a very nice group of people.
I was at a pilot training base in Texas, in the 70s. We had Iranian student pilots, learning to fly. I can assure you, Iranian pilots are eqaully as bad as Iraqi pilots. It will be the great Marianas turkey shoot all over again.
The Iranian aircrafts and pilots have no chance against the Americans or the Israelis in dogfights.
The problem is the SAMs, not the dogfights.
Those top Soviet SAMs can blow up a plane when it tries to bomb lets say a nuclear site.
If the SAMs are destroyed, the mission would become much safer and easier to preform as you can understand.
And therefore we would probably see something like the following IAF operation:
---June 8, 1982- The Lebanon war ("Peace for the Galilee Operation"):
The destruction of the entire Soviet-Syrian air-defence system in Lebanon within few hours without a single warplane lost; Syria with the U.S.S.R built up an overlapping network of SAMs, and the density of SAM site locations was unmatched anywhere in the world including the U.S.S.R. itself.
Also the IAF achieved in dogfights a total of 80 Syrian planes shoot-downs, without a single Israeli plane being shot down.
---If the USAF or/and the IAF make a similar operation at our present scenario, the entire mission would go with ease.
^
The cruise missiles were designed to carry nukes in the first place. Conventional warheads are mainly for R&D and training. We will not find any specific deployment data on the Internet, and especially not on this site.
I suspect any site we think is a target is a decoy.
I believe that President Bush will take the necessary military action -- and my guess is that it will be sooner rather than later.
That, or he will simply give a green light to Prime Minister Sharon to do so. I hope it is sooner rather than later. I shudder to think what waiting too long would mean.
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