As much as it would be a lovely idea to see an end to the Iranian nut-jobs dreams of having Nukes with an all out attack on their facilities by either the U.S or Israel. Its really not going to be that simple (When is it? :D )
You see, recently the Iranians have purchased a quite high number of Russian-made 3M-82 Moskit anti-ship cruise missiles (NATO designation: SS-N-22 Sunburn.
The Sunburn can deliver a 200-kiloton nuclear payload, or: a 750-pound conventional warhead, within a range of 100 miles, and it travels at Mach 2. Basically its designed to sink a carrier.
The US Navy's only defense against the Sunburn missile is to detect its approach well ahead of time. For this purpose US AWACs radar planes assigned to each naval battle group are kept aloft on a rotating schedule. The planes "see" everything within two hundred miles of the fleet.
Trouble is the US navy operating in the Gulf faces a serious challenge that is unique to the coastal, environment. A glance at a map shows why: The Gulf is nothing but a large lake, with one narrow outlet, and most of its northern shore, i.e., Iran, consists of mountainous terrain that affords a commanding tactical advantage over ships operating in Gulf waters, should they have mobile launchers in those mountains things could get tricky.
Mind you they'd be even trickier if the Nut-jobs got nukes and tipped the Sunburns with them, they could hold all shipping in the gulf to ransom in that event.
Difficult times ahead I believe.
Here is a list of IAF world records:
-June 5, 1967 - the Six Day War: The destruction of the entire Egyptian air-force within 3 hours. By the end of the day the Syrian and Jordanian air forces were wiped out as well. The IAF shoot-down total at the end of the war was a claimed record of 451 enemy aircraft downed versus of its own 10 downed. See: Operation Red Sheet.
-Obtaining the first shoot-downs for the American fighter jets, the F-15 and the F-16.
-1981: The destruction of the Iraqi Osiraq nuclear reactor. 8 IAF F-16 fighters flew to Iraq and bombed the nuclear facilties of Osiraq. Among the pilots that took part in the attack was the late Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut.
-1982: The destruction of the entire Syrian air-defence system in Lebanon without a single warplane lost. Also acheaving a total of 100 Syrian planes shoot-downs, without a single IAF warplane lost in dogfights.
-1985: The bombing of PLO Headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia, the longest mission ever undertaken by the IAF.
-The only documented emergency landing of an F-15 with only one wing.
-39 IAF pilot shot down at least 5 jet planes, 10 out of them shot down at least 8 jet planes.
-Major General Giora Epstein shot down 17 (seventeen) jet planes, holding the world record of jets shot down.
-687 enemy warplanes were shot down in dogfights by IAF warplanes since the independence day of Israel in 1948, while only 23 IAF warplanes were shot down in dogfights by enemy warplanes since 1948, meaning that the ratio kill of IAF on the arab air forces is 30:1.
Iran, do you really think that you can retaliate to one of the top air forces on earth? Think again :)