Israelis at Tabuk
I saw that also and ignored it. Tabuk is located in the northwest corner of Saudi Arabia and would provide little advantage to a strike force going to Iran. The Saudi AWACS would see any force departing Israel for any reason. The only exception would be logistics supply for the Saudi Air Force. A transfer of “bunker busters” or other ordnance is a viable reason for sending Israeli aircraft to a Saudi airfield.
Azerbaijan is another thing. An attack from Azerbaijan or Georgia sure shortens the flight time to the major Iranian installations. Nor is it without possibilities but more for the United States than Israel. Launch from the Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) in Romania. Meet tankers and refuel. The tankers remain over Georgia and Azerbaijan. The fighters go in and destroy the atomic facilities and recover if necessary at Georgian or Azerbaijani airfields or return to their launch bases if capable. World Threats just reported that the joint exercise in Israel included American aircraft from FOBs in Romania.
At the end of all of this tit-for-tat maneuvering, the US may decide that it is better for the region if we are the “bad guys” who take out the Iranian facilities. That does not mean that Iran will not lash out at all its real and perceived enemies (which is just about everybody). But it does mean that the Israelis don’t do it. It also means that the locals get to save their strength for the Iranian response whatever that may be. Or we may just launch a couple of B-2s from Diego Garcia and do it the easy way. Cruise missiles?
jkbrent Says:
If the Israelis need to fly over Saudi, they will and the Saudi’s will not complain. Any such event would have been pre-arranged before happening. If they were at Tabuk, Saudi Arabia knew about it. They may have done this as a ‘maskirovka’ to wet Iranian Intelligence appetites. But, flying to Romania, then over Goergia & Azerbaijan is senseless. Even if they evaded Russian long range radar, there’s more than enough Russian spies on the ground that Iran would have a minute by minute update on distance & bearing of these planes all the way to Iran. More than likely they’ll fly the Saudi route, or send them over Jordan. Jordan will do a Sargeant Schultz and pay them no mind, because the King there knows the same thing the Saudi King knows. If iran had their way, both men would be room temperature in the name of Allah. You can forget the USA doing anything. Not with an Ally of the Mullah’s sitting in the White House.
Posted on June 28th, 2010 at 6:42 am