The secret of the observation network had been so well maintained that the Israelis did not learn about the existence of the network until the NSA provided intercept data to Israel in late 2010. Even as of the date of the launch of Block G, despite the best efforts of Aman, the exact location of the observers was unknown to Israel. But the codes used to communicate with Tehran had been broken and every message from Khan Yunis to Tehran was read by Unit 8200 at the same time as the IRGC was reading each message in Tehran.
The existence of the network had resulted in significant discussion among the Olympus planning team on how to eliminate the early warning notice that would go out to Iran when all of the planes of the Hammer Squadron left Hatzerim. Alternative ideas included jamming and having all of the F-15I aircraft spend a day or so prior to launch at dispersed airfields around Israel. But in the end, it was a suggestion by Amit Margolis that resulted in the plan finally adopted. Now that plan was in motion.
At 7:22 p.m. local time, one hour after sunset and before total darkness had set in, the first four of 24 F-15I Ra’ams of 69 Hammer Squadron took off in pairs in quick succession from parallel runways 28L and 28R at Hatzerim. Each plane had a pilot in the front seat and a weapons system officer, or “wizzo,” in the back seat. Each plane was loaded to within one ton of the maximum takeoff weight of 81,000 pounds and used most of the available concrete of each of the two long runways.
The first plane to lift off was piloted by Gil Bar-Kokhba, call sign “Gadget,” with his longtime partner Ronen Isser, call sign “Pacer,” in the rear seat. Gadget’s F-15I carried two GBU-121B thermobaric bombs, each weighing 2,000 pounds and mounted underneath the fuselage on each side of a centerline mounted 600 gallon external fuel tank. The bombs could not be dropped safely until the centerline fuel tank had been successfully jettisoned. The plane also carried two Python-5 air-to-air infrared missiles on underwing launch mounts located just to the outside of two 600 gallon external fuel tanks mounted under the wings. The plane’s M61A1 Vulcan gun system had been removed to save weight, its right side wing root opening now covered for aerodynamic improvement — the mission of this plane was to deliver its GBU-121B bombs, not to engage in a dogfight. Gadget and Pacer would cover the longest distance of any the pilots involved in Block G and would explore the range limits of the F-15I.
All of the crews had been told only that morning that this was the day when Block G, for which they had all been training for years, was going to become a reality. As they had during the week long period running into the prior two new moons, they had been confined to base and following an enforced work-sleep pattern that had them waking at 4 in the afternoon, flying only nighttime training missions and going to sleep at 8 in the morning. The crews had begun to joke about the schedule as “Hammer Time.”
The takeoff of the entire squadron, with the exception of a single plane, had been done many times over the prior two years. Tonight, the planes climbed toward the west, in the direction of Abasan al-Kabirah, and then banked to the north to continue their climb over Israel, being careful to stay clear of the airspace over the Gaza Strip. By the time the squadron turned west again, the planes were climbing through 18,000 feet as they passed over the coastal Israeli city of Ashdod. They continued to climb as they headed west over the Mediterranean Sea and started a slow turn to the north.
At 7:54 p.m. in Israel, equipment operated by Unit 8200 intercepted a telephone call originating from somewhere inside the Gazan city of Khan Yunis and going to a cell phone number somewhere in the West Bank town of Nablus. The phone call was cryptic but was easy to decode for the team assigned to this network. Once passed from the West Bank to Tehran, it would inform the senior commander of Iran’s air defense forces that the entire 69 Hammer Squadron had departed Hatzerim at 1625 Zulu — 7:25 p.m. local time, 7:55 p.m. Iranian time — headed to the west over the Mediterranean. The planes were heavily loaded with weapons ordnance.
As Unit 8200 intercepted the call from Khan Yunis, the first six aircraft of a wave of 25 F-16s took off to the northeast in pairs from three parallel runways at Ramon Airbase located south of Hatzerim in the middle of the Negev desert. They would soon be joined by another 40 F-16s and 20 F-15s taking off from Ovda, Ramon and Nevatim Airbases, all within the Negev desert. All 85 of these aircraft flew south to the Gulf of Aqaba before turning to the east to head toward Shangri-La by flying over northern Saudi Arabia. All of these aircraft were configured for Suppression of Enemy Air Defense, or SEAD, missions. The majority of planes carried two AGM-88D or E model high speed anti-radiation missiles, all of them designed to home into and destroy sources of radar emissions. Half the planes carried a single Delilah missile. The Delilah is an Israeli stand-off cruise missile that can travel over 200 miles to find and strike stationary and mobile targets, including the ability to loiter over an area and search for targets. Almost all of the planes carried air-to-air missiles, including AIM-120 AMRAAM beyond visual range missiles and Python 4 and 5 infrared missiles.
The twenty F-15Cs that took off from Nevatim Airbase were configured for SEAD and Combat Air Patrol, or CAP, missions over Iran, some being armed with similar weapons as their smaller F-16 partners. But the primary mission of all of the planes was CAP support in the event that Iranian Air Force aircraft rose into the skies. Some of the planes carried the Spice 1000 or Spice 2000 winged glide bomb for use against specific targets in route.
56 — The Madhatters Come Calling
Somewhere over the Mediterranean Sea, the F-15Is of 69 Hammer Squadron that took off from Hatzerim Airbase reached their cruising altitude of 37,000 feet and then turned back to southeast to fly back over Israel, turning due south until they had passed over the Israeli city of Eilat, situated on the Gulf of Aqaba. The planes flew in a tight trailing formation of four planes per group. About fifteen miles south of Eilat, they turned east to head over the northern desert of Saudi Arabia. Another 445 miles later, at a point in the sky designated Point Romeo, the planes of Hammer Squadron descended 10,000 feet to begin aerial refueling from seven IAF KC-707s.
Each F-15I filled all available space within its internal fuel tanks, two conformal fuel tanks, two wing mounted external fuel tanks and one centerline mounted external fuel tank. After refueling, each plane left Point Romeo with 5,568 gallons, or 37,860 pounds, of JP-8 fuel, enough to fly about 3,870 kilometers, or 2,405 miles, depending on when the planes unloaded their lethal payloads. This was just enough for each plane to reach its target inside Iran, maneuvering as necessary to hit targets or evade air defenses, fly south to the Persian Gulf and then head west over the Saudi desert to return home to Hatzerim.