It is one thing to be skeptical of US “loss” in simulation against an opponent, however, in the Israeli case, they only recently had similar results against the German airforce in WVR wargames. There is a consistant pattern of Israeli prowess in the air that should not be dismissed as simply propaganda.

I seem to recall the Germans claimed the Israelis held a decisive advantage with their off bore-sight helmet display system and the Python-4, plus some other electronic gizmos the Israelis put into their aircrafts.

Interesting observation Shadow1. But what makes these Israeli pilots so much better? Afterall, Israel has not fought any major airforces recently. For the last several decades they have been dropping bombs on terrorist hideouts, not essentially different than the task given to USAF these days.

Iran does not have nukes. Even if they did they wouldn’t waste them by letting them drift in the ocean.

The idea really is what Iran might do to attack an invasion force. Attacking the Panama Cannel, with or without a carrier group in the locks is not immediatly helpful to Iran.

If you think US Naval ships aren’t at a high state of readiness when they enter the Gulf, you would be wrong.

This idea just won’t work. Option one-use jamming and fly at low level. AEGIS detects the jamming source. Alert fighters are airborne inside of 5 minutes and find a 747. Iran looses one 747. Option 2-the “mimic the airline” idea. Flight schedules and routes are common knowledge to radar operators in the area. If you’re flying without a transponder code, you’ll be investigated. If you try the “we have an emergency” route, you’ll be investigated. I just don’t see this ever working, especially after 9/11.

AEGIS can find the planes no problem, but how does it shoot down a jammer aircraft? Can a SAM home on jam? Can AMRAAM home on jam? Alert fighters will have to get close and hope their IR AAMs don’t get decoyed. If that don’t work they go to guns. I don’t know how long it takes to rip apart a 747 with 20mm guns, but chances are they’d run out of time. Actually this is what happened in my story.

Think of the attack in three stages. Stage one is to sneak in as close as possible without being detected. Stage two is to fire missiles to keep the defender busy, meanwhile use jamming to prevent missile lock. Stage three is just to crash through the final line of defense with four really big planes.

BTW I looked it up on FAS Iranian airforce has 4 747F (freighters) and 30 Su-24MKs, which is why I assembled this force.