Quote:
Originally Posted by 1480
You do not believe they have that operational capability? It may stretch them thin but I think they can handle that type of mission logistically.
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For a quick overview, I used Wikipedia.
They have 10 Hercules tankers and 10 Boeing 707 tankers.
Number of F-15 and F-16 jets in service is 373-408 (varying sources).
These fall into three groups, air superiority fighters, fighter bombers, and multi role.
Roughly 60 air superiority fighters.
25 fighter bombers/strike fighters.
~320 multi role
For dealing with a target list of 300 places regarding the weapon and nuclear research program alone, plus the integrated air defences of Iran, plus considering the huge distance they need to approach over, plus the huge size of Iran, those aircraft numbers do not really convince me - nor can I rule out that it is sufficient in case everything works well.
Does everything work well in war?
No doubt a huge number of cruise missiles would be used, too. But still. And Israel's supply in smart ammo is not unlimited.
As I said earlier, I doubt that a conventionel strike alone could reach all components of the Iranian program. And if that strike is reduced in size and cannot be maintained over a longer time since the number of planes available is not sufficient, chances are even thinner.
Outcome of this operation is anything but certain, even if the US throws in its weight. We can only hope that it would achieve its objectives, and that that objective is not "delay", but "destruction". For just delaying it, it is not worth the effort and the ammount of killing and destruction - you will need to do it again in the forseeable future.
It will also be interesting times for Israeli'S ground army and riot police: Gaza/Hamas, Lebanon/Hezbollah, internal riots, and a no longer safe Egyptian border. Just Syria, for the time being, seems to be taken out of the equation.