35 years on, IAF pilots recall daring mission to bomb Saddam’s nuke reactorBy ToI Staff 4 June 2016, 6:34 am
Airmen divulge use of inside intel from Osirak, and how they ribbed rookie flier Ilan Ramon — the last and most vulnerable man in the formation of eight jets
Late IAF pilot and astronaut Ilan Ramon, interviewed shortly after 1981's Operation Opera, in which Israel destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq. (Screen capture: Channel 10)Thirty-five years after Operation Opera – the Israeli air attack that destroyed Saddam Hussein’s nuclear reactor at Osirak, retired IAF officers and Mossad agents revealed hitherto unknown details of the operation on Friday.
In an expose aired on Channel 10, Col. (Ret.) Ze’ev Raz, who led the June 7, 1981 raid, said that Air Force technicians “recognized that flying to Iraq and back” — some 2,000 miles in all — was slightly beyond the range of our jets, so we used all sorts of tricks to extend it.”
The Israeli Air Force could not rely on US flying tanker planes for mid-flight refueling at the time, and Israeli refueling capabilities, then in the making, would not be operational until 1982, by which point intelligence assessments were that the nuclear reactor would go online. (...)
https://www.timesofisrael.com/35-years-on-iaf-pilots-recall-daring-mission-to-bomb-saddams-nuke-reactor/
Wątek: Ilan Ramon (20.06.1954-01.02.2003) (Przeczytany 1164 razy)