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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Israeli air force unable to destroy Iran nuclear plants, says report |
| 2012-04-09 |
| Israel would not be able to destroy Iran's nuclear program in a pre-emptive air strike with its air force, forcing its leadership to look for alternative means of attack, a defence report has said. Experts believe Israel's military options are restricted to high-risk choices, such as a long-range missile bombardment from Israel or a special forces raid on the ground. The military journal Jane's Defence Weekly cast doubt on Israel's ability to mount a successful operation, saying it would face ''substantial difficulties''. ''The significant distances involved and hardened features of Iran's nuclear facilities make any 'massive surprise' aerial attack a very high-risk operation for Israel to undertake on its own,'' it said. Israel has the most powerful air force in the Middle East but would struggle to mount the complex strikes necessary to deal a real blow to Iran's nuclear plants. Advertisement: Story continues below Senior Israeli officials have said the country is prepared to take unilateral action to stop Iran acquiring a nuclear bomb. Israel destroyed Saddam Hussein's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1982 and hit a Syrian reactor in 2007. However, for Iran, the air force would have to carry out numerous strikes with air-to-air refuelling, possibly over several days. ''This is not going to be one strike and they are out, not like Syria or Iraq where facilities were not underground, it is much harder than that,'' said Malcolm Chalmers of the Royal United Services Institute. ''And the Iranians are experts in building reinforced concrete because of their long problems with earthquakes. But air strikes could destroy power plants, supply facilities, communications and the centrifuges themselves would be very sensitive to blast. They could do quite a lot of damage which would set back the program for a period.'' |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #8 If you bust up the entryways--which must have moving parts--so that they don't work for, say, a week, haven't you solved the problem? Many years ago Iran bought subway boring machines & has been using them. Have all the entryways been accounted for? Including the ones which have not yet penetrated the surface? |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2012-04-09 23:19 |
| #7 Its not the original strikeop that is a prob for the US-Israel, etal. as Iran's post-attack response Joe does have a point. How many supertankers will Iran have to hit in the Strait of Hormuz before the rest of the world suffers hugely? However, what kinds of problems will Israel &/or the US have if Iran doesn't go post-attack, i.e., is just allowed to keep on keeping on with whatever the Mullahs are hatching? |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2012-04-09 23:17 |
| #6 Its not the original strikeop that is a prob for the US-Israel, etal. as Iran's post-attack response - the Mullahs are prepared to fight what can be best described as a "SUPER/NUCLEAR-VIETNAM" WID ALL THE INTERNAT BRINKMANSHIP; + NONE OF THE MULTI-COUNTRY SOVEREIGN BORDERS OR DMZS. THEY ARE WILLING TO LOSE MUCH OR ALL OF IRAN PROPER + WAGE REGIONAL OR TRANS-REGIONAL "PEOPLE'S WAR", WID WHATEVER NUKES-WMDS ARE READILY AVAILABLE. The Mullahs first said or inferred this back during the late Clinton-era - AFAIK nothing has changed. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2012-04-09 22:25 |
| #5 This isn't a one-time affair. The phrase "mowing the grass" has been used. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2012-04-09 18:44 |
| #4 The Israelis may not be able to 'destroy' the nuclear plants but they sure can damage them. Turn some to rubble, some to semi-rubble, some to slightly damaged, and miss a few, and you have still managed to slow them down significantly. Wait until the Iranians have repaired all the damage and hit them again. This isn't a one-time affair. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2012-04-09 16:39 |
| #3 I must be missing something. If you bust up the entryways--which must have moving parts--so that they don't work for, say, a week, haven't you solved the problem? Can't put a thousand-pounder with a penetrating fuze near an elevator shaft? Sure they can. |
| Posted by: Richard Aubrey 2012-04-09 13:25 |
| #2 How about bioweapon that will turn Iranian males into females? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2012-04-09 10:42 |
| #1 And WHO wtote rhis 'Teport"? |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2012-04-09 10:39 |