Part of the Israeli attack on Syria included first taking out—via old-fashioned bombing—a critical radar station. And the U.S. helped.
The first event in the raid involved Israel’s strike aircraft flying into Syria without alerting Syrian air defenses. The ultimate target was a suspected nuclear reactor being developed at Dayr az-Zawr. But the main attack was preceded by an engagement with a single Syrian radar site at Tall al-Abuad near the Turkish border.
The radar site was struck with a combination of electronic attack and precision bombs to allow the Israeli force to enter and exit Syrian airspace unobserved. Subsequently all of Syria’s air-defense radar system went off the air for a period of time that encompassed the raid, U.S. intelligence analysts told Aviation Week.
However, there was “no U.S. active engagement other than consulting on potential target vulnerabilities,” a U.S. electronic warfare specialist says.
Israel has been making sure to stay on the cutting edge of defense. Considering she is surrounded by enemy nations, that makes a whole heck of a lot of sense.
These observations provide evidence that a sophisticated network attack and electronic hacking capability is an operational part of the Israeli Defense Force’s arsenal of digital weapons.
Despite being hobbled by the restrictions of secrecy and diplomacy, Israeli military and government officials also confirm that network invasion, information warfare and electronic attack are part of Israel’s defense capabilities.
These tools have been embraced operationally by key military units, but their development, use and the techniques employed are still a mystery even to other defense and government organizations. It remains “a shadowy world,” an Israeli Air Force general confirms.
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Technological superiority is a critical component, possibly the most critical component, of military superiority. While I worry about Israel it is safe to say it will not be overtaken in this regard by its backward, medieval enemies.