Sunday, May 19, 2019

Israel, birds--and the F-35 warplane. Did Israel lie?



According to a Google-search, the F-35 fighter plane is possibly the most-advanced warplane in the sky. Certainly, it's one of the most expensive single-seat US fighter aircraft ever built. 

It's supposed to be almost impossible to detect. It could be the best stealth aircraft made.

Israel has committed to purchase some 50 F-35's (here). Currently, it's received more than a dozen. So far as we know, the Israel is the first nation in the world to utilize these aircraft for combat operations (here).

In October, 2017, after one such operation, something appeared to go wrong. If you recall, it was during that part of 2017 that Israel was sending aircraft into Syria to degrade military installations controlled by Iran. Israel's thoughts about these installations are simple: the religious imperative that drives Iran maintains that Israel must be destroyed (here). Iran's leadership has committed to this goal (ibid). Creating military assets in Syria is part of that commitment (ibid).

Israel's own leadership, meanwhile, entertains no delusions about Iran. Iran wasn't creating serious military sites in Syria for nothing. 

To protect itself, Israel wants to destroy these positions in Syria now, when no one else in the region is ready to declare open war against the Jewish state. That's why Israel has been attacking these Iranian sites in Syria.

The truth is, Israel can't afford to wait until there's a full-scale regional war against it to attack these positions because at that future moment, if these positions are allowed today to harden and indeed proliferate, Israel might not have the assets to attack them--and everyone else attacking it. 

For Israel, tolerance today could mean being overwhelmed tomorrow.

So far, this approach has worked. Iranian assets in Syria have been degraded by Israeli air attacks--and Iran appears to have begun to pull out of Syria (ibid). Moreover, no one in the region--or elsewhere--has chosen to attack Israel because of Iran's losses in Syria.

These Israeli attacks against Iranian assets in Syria began in earnest in 2017. Between 2017 and early May, 2019, Israel attacked more than 200 of these Iranian targets in Syria, using some 800 bombs and missiles in those attacks (here). As a result, the Iranian attempt to create a military network in Syria appears halted (here and here).

The F-35 comes into this story because after one particular October 2017 Israeli air attack against Iranian assets in Syria, an Israel announcement that all its planes returned safely to base was countered by a Syrian report that one of its anti-aircraft missiles had hit an Israel aircraft. Israel denied that report.

At that moment, no one gave the Syrian report much credence. But only a few hours later, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) made an additional announcement. It said that a bird had caused very serious damage to an F-35--two weeks earlier, during a training flight (here). 

This announcement, coming just hours after the Syrian declaration of a missile strike against an Israeli aircraft, lit up anti-Israel rumor mongers who jumped to the immediate conclusion that this 'bird-strike announcement' was actually a crude attempt by Israel to cover up the 'fact' that a Syrian missile had struck an Israeli aircraft; and, the rumor-mongers suggested, the aircraft struck wasn't just any aircraft. It was the supposedly 'stealth' F-35 (here).

This sounded incredible because the missile that was said to have hit the F-35 wasn't a high-tech missile. It wasn't modern--or particularly sophisticated. It was a Russian S200. 

The S200, while the most advanced such missile in Syria's arsenal, isn't state-of-the-art. It's 'old'--so old, there appears no way it could defeat the F-35's technology. 

What had happened here? Could a grossly outdated 1960's-era Russian-designed missile hit the greatest American stealth product? (here)

If true, the fallout from such a discovery would devastate Israel's belief it had in the F-35 the antidote it needed to defeat Syria's defenses and, potentially, Iran's defenses. This 'truth' would also devastate Israel's belief the F-35 was helping Israel to maintain its 'qualitative' advantage over its more numerous enemies, something it sorely needs to defend itself successfully against the far more numerous forces arrayed against it.

Such a failure against an unsophisticated, older Russian-designed weapon would mean that the great 'equalizer' Israel had purchased was no equalizer at all. It was more an unbelievably expensive piece of useless equipment.

That's how matters stood in October 2017. It's how the question of 'the bird vs the F-35' has remained. For many in the anti-Israel world, the Israeli idea of an F-35 being seriously damaged by a single bird (and not by an out-of-date missile) has remained just that, just another Israeli 'notion'--interesting, but untrue. You know, another Israeli lie.

But now, there's another, newer, F-35 bird story, this time not from Israel, but from Japan. As reported by the AFP news service, a US Marine Corps F-35 fighter plane, upon attempting recently to take off from a base in Japan, was struck by a bird. It wasn't flying at speed. It was still on--or near--the ground. Nevertheless, it suffered "millions of dollars" of damage (here).

The pilot of this F-35 was reported to have safely aborted the take-off. Upon inspection, the damage assessment for the aircraft was graded as 'A', meaning, the repairs would be expensive. 

This shocks us? Haven't we seen enough bird-plane stories to know that when birds and planes collide, bad things can happen? 

Why should the F-35 defy physics? The F-35 has never been advertised as 'tough as a tank' or 'built to take whatever gets thrown at it'. The F-35 selling points involve stealth, technology and on-board high-speed data processing.  It's not a flying tank. It's an electronic thoroughbred.

Thoroughbreds are delicate--always are. As is often the case with products that are both complex, electronic and expensive, one often sacrifices durability for performance.  Why should the F-35 be different?

Looked at through the prism of this new F-35 incident, that Israel 'bird-strike' announcement doesn't sound so suspicious. That announcement might not have been some attempt by Israel to cover-up an under-performing product sold to gullible Jews, as some would have us believe. 

Certainly, some want to believe that. It conforms to their anti-Israel narrative. But the bottom line for Israel still appears to be that this one aircraft is "clearly suited to the Israeli emphasis on deterrence...[the aircraft] is likely to provide a qualitative solution [my emphasis] to the many challenges expected to face Israel" (here).

There's been nothing in the news to suggest that this last statement--written before the October 2017 'bird-strike' story--is no longer true for Israel. Indeed, no one even knows for sure if any F-35 had even participated in that October 2017 attack. 

Yes, Israel-mockers tried to have a field day at Israel's expense (here)But then, with this new US 'bird vs F-35' story, the Israeli story about damage caused by a bird doesn't seem so outlandish. Perhaps that announcement back in October 2017 wasn't a cover-up at all. Maybe the problems it caused were just a case of bad timing. 

Actually, maybe the appearance of that announcement wasn't an accident. Maybe it was purposeful--to troll Israel-haters. 

Trolling happens all the time (here). Israel can't troll its enemies?

My guess is there was no Israeli cover-up back in October 2017. There was no lie. Birds and F-35's simply don't go together. Bird accidents happen.

Don't tell that to Israel-haters. They prefer the lie. They prefer the delusion that the Israelis are closer to fools than a world-class fighting entity.

Let them continue to believe their lies.







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