Wartime tasks split: US to smash Iran’s missiles, Israel tackle Syria, Hizballah

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report August 5, 2012, 1:38 PM

An authoritative US military source told debkafile Sunday, Aug. 5 that the American armed forces are standing ready for war with Iran. Without going into the thorny question of who should lead the operation to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program, the US or Israel, it is understood that one of the US Air Force’s tasks will be to destroy Iran’s Shehab-3 ballistic missile batteries which have Israel and Saudi Arabia within range.

This task is not as formidable as Iranian spokesmen would have the world believe. Tehran’s entire stock of those missiles is no more than 30-40. That quantity is not nearly enough to take on the entire gamut of potential wartime foes, the United States Middle East bases, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and Turkey. They would quickly be picked off by American Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Systems and Israeli Arrow guided interceptor rockets, which are synchronized through the advanced US X-Band radar systems installed in the Israeli Negev and southeast Turkey.

In any case, it is hard to believe that Iran would empty its entire ballistic missile arsenal in a single blazing assault at the start of war. “They are too canny to leave themselves without some Shehabs in reserve for crises even more acute than the outbreak of war,” said the US military source.

He went on to explain that by wiping out the Shehabs, the US high command would leave the Israeli Air Force free to take on the thousands of rockets Syria, the Lebanese Hizballah and the Palestinian Hamas and Jihad Islami have stored ready for shooting in support of an Iranian missile offensive – not just against Israel, but Turkey and Jordan as well.

Saturday, the Iranian Defense Minister, Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, announced that his ministry’s aerospace industries had successfully test-fired the fourth generation of high-precision Fateh-110 missiles with a range of over 300km.

He said that the new missiles can hit and destroy both land and sea targets, enemy concentration points, command centers, missile sites, ammunition dumps, radars and other targets with 100 percent precision.

debkafile’s military sources add that the Fateh-110 is the core weapon Syria and Hizballah have stocked for destroying strategic targets in Israel, Jordan and Turkey.

Sunday, Aug. 5, a senior Israeli defense official reported that Israel is upgrading its Arrow II ballistic missile shield, designed to intercept medium range rockets and fill the gaps left by Iron Dome. The announcement in Tehran was taken in Israel as a threat and an indication that the improved Fatah-110 had already been dispatched to its Damascus and Beirut destinations, so exacerbating the perils of Syria’s Scud missiles and chemical weapons which its government has threatened to use against external enemies.

August 5, 2012 | 17 Comments »

Leave a Reply

17 Comments / 17 Comments

  3. Why no talk about Iran putting a nuclear bomb on a scud and shooting it near the US coast? The US has no defenses against ascending missiles. A nuclear bomb exploding a few hundred miles above the ground will totally destroy all electronics.

  6. Israel needs to take out soft targets such as the Iranian Royal Guard. Then the Iranian people can change the government.

  7. @ SHmuel HaLevi:
    http://israelendtimes.com/blog/2009/09/29/where-is-the-un.htm#more-193

    “Comprehensive Peace Agreement” is the modern Pax Romana as in, “they made a desert and called it peace,” or, “you need protection.” From whom? “From us” or is that, from USA? Notice: as the threat of attack from Persia and its Syrian satellite grows so does the American protective presence in what remains of the land of Israel. We assume readers know about the advanced American anti-missile batteries in Israel that do not share their intelligence readings with IDF staff unless the Americans deem it useful to dribble some leftovers to their vassal. How bitter that the Israeli vassal does more genuine service to its American masters than perhaps any other vassal state in history. There is a ‘good’ reason for this: by running the “Jewish State” as a subsidiary of the Quartet directorate, the subcontractors (perennial client regime, a.k.a. the undertakers) get to suppress the Jews. There are few things a modern or post-modern Hellenist loves more: it demonstrates the progress s/he has made from the superstition of a living culture into the great darkness of world-Hellenism and its Dionysian trappings and substrate.

  8. Whoever wants to get involved on the ground in Syria at this point needs his head examined. That said, at some point in the future, the WMDs there are going to have to be accounted for.

  9. If anyone either trusts Mr. Soetoro or believes that attacking long range rocket silos, (estimated 40 rockets), would make one iota of difference to the nuclear plans of Iran that would be a fine way to commit national suicide.
    Mr. Soetoro MUST remove the US 90 nuclear B6 1 type, gravity strategic nuclear bombs, variable yield stored under mutual control with Turkey in the INCIRLIK Turkish Air Force base across the Med from Israel and far away from either Russia or Iran. Mr. Soetoro must remove the “X” band radar inserted into the Israel Nebatim AFB and the 9000 US soldiers with that. Those are considered inimical elements.

  12. Lily Brull Said:

    I don’t believe what I just read. Why don’t you announce the time and place and weapons used and number and type of troops? Once upon a time, before technology made loose lips a common occurrence, you would have been severely censored. Leakage has now become a common occurrence. How about the lives that will be lost as a result?

    Well, you still live in dark ages.
    Today such announcements are part of the war.
    Debkafile is releasing these the in order to tell the enemy that “we are serious”.
    Now if the enemy believe that “we are serious”, they will accept our terms and there will be no need for war. On the other hand if they dont’ believe, then there will be a need for war.

    There is no way such information could ever leek out from the military without this being a part of the calculation.
    And of course there is no way to know if this information is true.

  13. Israel should take care of Iran, and the US should get entangled in Syria. Israel can attack Iran any time it pleases. Even if they totally botch the job (which the US is more likely to do than they), all the Iranians can do in response is attack US forces in the Persian Gulf. Israel calls all the shots here, IF IT WANTS TO. It doesn’t, though — Bibi seems hell-bent on scratching Obama’s back. I would really LOVE to see him be a stinker, though. Bibi faces an election too: Maybe he’ll get some guts, if only to win votes.

    I expect Obama to do SOMETHING before the election. May he be as effective as Clinton and Carter, his mentors. He really has my blessing, if he wants to get involved in Syria, a place Israel has wisely kept its nose out of. With or without wars in Iran or Syria, Israel will eventually end up fighting Hamas and Hizbullah — again and again. This is becoming such a commonplace occurrence, it’s hardly worth mentioning.

    I’m praying for lots of “Oops!” in this coming war 🙂

  15. I don’t believe what I just read. Why don’t you announce the time and place and weapons used and number and type of troops? Once upon a time, before technology made loose lips a common occurrence, you would have been severely censored. Leakage has now become a common occurrence. How about the lives that will be lost as a result?

  16. Eric R.

    “The bad news is that it would insure Obama’s re-election.”

    That is probably the only reason why he would contemplate it.

  17. If this were to happen, there is good news and bad news.

    The good news is that Israel would get at least a few years reprieve from the Nazis in Tehran.

    The bad news is that it would insure Obama’s re-election.