The Day on which Hizbullah Downs an ’Israeli’ Warplane

Muhammad Bdeir

About ten days ago, the Secretary General of Hizbullah His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, alluded to the need to act, at a specific time, to address the "Israeli" air violations of Lebanese airspace. This is at a time when this hint - the stance - was not picked up by "Israel" amid the panic caused by the "nuclear threat", which was made by Nasrallah on the same occasion.

However, a report published yesterday on the Walla "Israeli" news website stated that the "Israeli" Air Force is arranging the necessary precautions towards what was signalled by Nasrallah. The report, which came under the title of "the day that Hizbullah launches a missile that downs an "Israeli" warplane" spoke about the changes of "the reality in the air" for the Israeli Air Force, whereby the ["Israeli"] pilots have become "during the last six months, exposed to a diverse number of radar tracking from the Lebanese arena, affecting special and current activity".

The report considered that "the threat present in the air comes in the form of attempts to launch a missile against an Israeli aircraft" by Hizbullah. The party, according to the report, "put its eye in recent years on advanced air defence systems owned by the Syrian army", including SA-17 systems "capable of coping with a large number of threats: missiles, helicopters, fighter jets, and various aircraft" as well as the SA-22 system which is the "most advanced".

While the report has pointed out that there is no [information] yet that confirms the transfer of the SA-22 system to Hizbullah, it also pointed out that it "can be assumed that the SA-6 systems [capable of intercepting aerial targets 75 km high, according to the Hebrew report] and the SA-8 [a tactical, mobile, short-distance system] have been moved to Hizbullah". In this context, the report evoked what was said by "foreign publications which spoke during the past few years on the implementation of a number of raids by the "Israeli" air force, on convoys carrying weapons from Syria to Lebanon, including the attempt to smuggle the SA-17 system".

The report, prepared by the security affairs editor on the website, Amir Bouchbot, relayed "Israeli" Air Force pilots as saying "that the other party [Hizbullah] has become more aggressive lately, and it seems that it feels at ease amid the Russian presence in the region, allowing it to focus its special detection capabilities on our aircraft. Sometimes this matter leads to the extent of harassment, and it is your responsibility to assess whether you abort the mission or hit your head in the wall".

Bouchbot recalled that the detection and warning systems on "Israeli" fighter jets allow the pilot to diagnose the tracking degree that his plane is subjected to, and to find out whether the radar has locked onto it, as an indicator of the objection stage.

Commenting on a question about the threats facing the Air Force in this context, one of the senior officers said to the site: "the threat is determined according to the capacity and intention [present]. We assess the situation in order to decide on the presence or absence of a threat. On the one hand, what are the existing capacities, on the other hand, what are the intentions of the enemy? It may have the ability but not the intention, and it may have the intention but not the ability. I test this issue all the time, and for this reason we are in this tension all the time when dealing with the enemy". He explained that "daily estimations of the situation relate to every operational issue".

The report held that "dilemmas faced by air force pilots have become more complex over time, and during every mission the extent to which possibility of confrontation between the aircraft and air defence systems erected between Syria and Lebanon are considered". Regarding this point, the senior officer said "We understand the cost of our decisions. I can let the aircraft engage in engagements up until a certain extent."

In this context, the report pointed to the role that "is carried out by the "Israeli" Air Force in collecting intelligence information relating to the target bank which the "Israeli" army is building up, and which has dramatically grown since the Second Lebanon War. The bank also requires constant attention in order to understand what is happening not only above ground, but also what Hizbullah is preparing under the ground in more than two hundred villages in southern Lebanon". He explained that "some of the flights that are being implemented in the Lebanese and Syrian airspace are designed to serve localized operations, and form an integral part of the ongoing security activities aimed at expanding the warning circles of the 'State of "Israel"', and to respond to deteriorating operational events".

Source: Al-Akbar Newspaper, Translated and Edited by website team