Much of this has been known to anyone who's been paying attention, ( in fact, there are other things I've heard tell of that are equally devastating) but this article by defense expert Eli Lake does a pretty good job of giving you an idea of some of the tools the IDF has available to take out Iran's nukes:
For much of the last decade, as Iran methodically built its nuclear program, Israel has been assembling a multibillion-dollar array of high-tech weapons that would allow it to jam, blind, and deafen Tehran's defenses in the case of a pre-emptive aerial strike.
A U.S. intelligence assessment this summer, described to The Daily Beast by current and former U.S. intelligence officials, concluded that any Israeli attack on hardened nuclear sites in Iran would go far beyond airstrikes from F-15 and F-16 fighter planes and likely include electronic warfare against Iran’s electric grid, Internet, cellphone network, and emergency frequencies for firemen and police officers.
For example, Israel has developed a weapon capable of mimicking a maintenance cellphone signal that commands a cell network to “sleep,” effectively stopping transmissions, officials confirmed. The Israelis also have jammers capable of creating interference within Iran’s emergency frequencies for first responders.
In a 2007 attack on a suspected nuclear site at al-Kibar, the Syrian military got a taste of this warfare when Israeli planes “spoofed” the country’s air-defense radars, at first making it appear that no jets were in the sky and then in an instant making the radar believe the sky was filled with hundreds of planes.
Israel also likely would exploit a vulnerability that U.S. officials detected two years ago in Iran's big-city electric grids, which are not “air-gapped”—meaning they are connected to the Internet and therefore vulnerable to a Stuxnet-style cyberattack—officials say.
A highly secretive research lab attached to the U.S. joint staff and combatant commands, known as the Joint Warfare Analysis Center (JWAC), discovered the weakness in Iran’s electrical grid in 2009, according to one retired senior military intelligence officer. This source also said the Israelis have the capability to bring a denial-of-service attack to nodes of Iran’s command and control system that rely on the Internet.
Tony Decarbo, the executive officer for JWAC, declined comment for this story. The likely delivery method for the electronic elements of this attack would be an unmanned aerial vehicle the size of a jumbo jet. An earlier version of the bird was called the Heron, the latest version is known as the Eitan. According to the Israeli press, the Eitan can fly for 20 straight hours and carry a payload of one ton. Another version of the drone, however, can fly up to 45 straight hours, according to U.S. and Israeli officials.
Unmanned drones have been an integral part of U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, gathering intelligence and firing missiles at suspected insurgents. But Israel's fleet has been specially fitted for electronic warfare, according to officials.
The Eitans and Herons would also likely be working with a special Israeli air force unit known as the Sky Crows, which focuses only on electronic warfare. A 2010 piece in The Jerusalem Post quoted the commander of the electronic warfare unit as saying, “Our objective is to activate our systems and to disrupt and neutralize the enemy’s systems.”
Read the rest here.
Israel doesn't necessarily need to touch their enemies to destroy them. They have all sorts of aces up their sleeves, a clever, cunning and extremely effective intelligence agency whose mere name strikes fear into Israel's enemies (Mossad), skilled defense engineers and researchers, and tons of highly effective technology on their side.
ReplyDeleteIf this is accurate and I have every reason to believe it is, this is all highly impressive stuff!! Israel hardly needs the assistance of the United States to carry out an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. In fact, American assistance would probably be a net hinderance for the operation.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with one premise in the article about Israel would wish to notify the Americans of a coming attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. Given the fact that Aemrica is currently penetrated at all levels by Iranian agents and those who are hostile to Israeli or American interests, the less information the Israelis give to the Americans and the less the Americans are involved over all the more likely the operation is to succeed.
Unlike the Israeli intellegence servives that are cunning and extremely effective, America's intellegence services are inhabited by incompetent boobs and to make matters worse most of these are left-wing boobs.
As an Basj Iranian commander recently pointed out, America is so weak right now if Iran attacked it right now not only would America not have the capacity to respond but would beg Iran for negotiations. America's only real choises are two fold right now.
1.)Immediately and without delay withdraw all US forces around the world to defensible positions on America's borders where they have a fighting chance to defend the country. 2.)The CIA and other intellegence agencies are grossly incompetent. Dismantle them and start from scratch. It will take some time to build competent intellegene services. During that time we will probably have to rely on allies for useful intellegence.
Not a pleasent sitution for sure but it is the reality of the situation. The sooner the powers that be admit to this and make the appropiate adjustments the better.