Posted on 03/17/2009 8:26:19 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
JERUSALEM, March 17 (Reuters) - Ballistic missiles could be Israel's weapon of choice against Iranian nuclear facilities if it decides on a pre-emptive attack and deems air strikes too risky, according to a report by a Washington think-tank.
Israel is widely assumed to have Jericho missiles capable of hitting Iran with an accuracy of a few dozen metres (yards) from target. Such a capability would be free of warplanes' main drawbacks -- limits on fuel and ordnance, and perils to pilots.
Extrapolating from analyst assessments that the most advanced Jerichos carry 750 kg (1,650 lb) conventional warheads, Abdullah Toukan of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said 42 missiles would be enough to "severely damage or demolish" Iran's core nuclear sites at Natanz, Esfahan and Arak.
"If the Jericho III is fully developed and its accuracy is quite high then this scenario could look much more feasible than using combat aircraft," he said in the March 14 report, titled "Study on a Possible Israeli Strike on Iran's Nuclear Development Facilities".
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Could or Should?
God Bless Israel!
Well duh.
Thank God Israel has the capability.
Sub launched and Land based....for sure. Probably serveral would be intended to make Iran go dark. Then bring in the planes.
Better go see Tehran soon....
yes. then bring in the planes
hope they know they are on their own with a muslim pres here in the US
Of course, in the software world at this point we call this a "simple matter of programming" when of course there's usually nothing simple about it. Same thing in ops - easy to armchair plan, very difficult to execute successfully. It is a long-a** mission. As I understand it, it is right at the limits of what they can do. There's the problem of overflights of other countries, range limits (tanking), and simply the stress/fatigue factor of such long missions... and dozens of other things big and small that make this a tough one. But when you consider a nuclear armed Iran...worth it IMHO.
Of course, with nuclear warheads the Jericho rockets become even more devastating!!
They will likely have to fly over Iraq, correct? What will our response to that be? It could theoretically be anything from encouragement to ignoring them to shooting down their missiles.
Sounds like a plan!
No way. Obambi would actually use the destruction of Iran as fuel for the anti-Israel, Muzzie-loving "international community." He would milk it for all it was worth.
Not if the missiles are sub launched from the Arabian Sea.
One Israeli nuke in Tehran and the war is over. Decapitation strike which they will claim is a work accident.
You don't really think that all those Palestinian work accidents are real accidents do you?
I have heard rumors for years that South Africa gave Israel a number of atomic weapons before Mandela took over. The outgoing government did not want to chance a former communist with their nuclear kit, so returned them to their partners. These were supposedly developed and tested with the cooperation of Taiwan, S.A., and Israel. When I was stationed near Einsiedlerhof Air Station in the eighties, it was announced that that station had routed information from one of our satellites that look for nuke flash; reported such a nuke test in S.A.
Does anyone have a say as to the mix/type of aircraft, routing, and the possibility of refueling for successful sorties, including the return trip? Would the Israelis consider some of the sorties as one way trips and then ditch in the Indian Ocean and get the pilots picked up by subs? Think of all those old F-4s, A-4s, F5Es, Kfirs, etc.
Plausible Deniability: With W in office, I could suspect that Israel could get by with a couple of huge, closely timed missions passing over Iraq and the U.S. observing that the bastards are so good, that even we did not see them. Damn, all our J-Stars and AWACS happened to be down this morning. But with O-man? He would sh*t and send Hillary back there to dump on the new coalition.
Comments?
Speculations?
IMHO, this was an Israeli nuclear test in cooperation with the RSA. The CIA denies it, but they're the same bunch who tried to sell us on their ridiculous TWA 800 animation.
Except that all that would have to fly, at extreme range, over U.S. controlled Iraqi airspace making the U.S. an active participant in the raids even though "Israel" will be the official attacker.
If that's the case, get blue and white paint and stencils, paint U.S. aircraft as shown below, mount a two week Shock & Awe campaign from right across the border and then blame "Israel".
Same diplomatic fallout. Much better results.
Those who know don't talk, and those who talk don't know.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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There would be more of a success guarantee if Israel simply loaded nukes into their ballistic missiles. You know, you’d get more bang for the buck.
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