I hope Syria redeploys in the Bekaa valley.

Yeah! If the Syrian Arab Air Force can get any aircraft up in the air and deploy to the Bekaa Valley that would be good news to foriegn operators of MiG aircraft as the supply of spare parts from them being shot down by the IDF/AF would be in ample supply. The IDF/AF has to be the largest distributor of MiG parts in the world.

They did it during the second Chechen conflict when they realised that during the first conflict the Frogfoot and Fencer were no more effective than a Flogger would have been. I think the re-activation lasted for the most intense period of the conflict…three months I think. I remember watching a CNN reporter reporting on RuAF activity and seeing two MiG-27s lift off with welded plates under the canopy laden with bombs.
It was the same with the tanks, during the second conflict the Russians realised that the T-80 could not offer any significant advantage over the older T-62 when blasting buildings and during the second conflict the T-62 (and reportedly the T-55) became the main tank in the conflict…though T-80s and T-72s were deployed in small number.
Wether or not the re-activation of the Flogger was an official thing or not I don’t know.

According to my copy of International Air Power Review, volume 15 pg. 89, the MiG-27’s retirement was a “great mistake” by General Deinekin with the conflict in Chechnya. The Su-24M/Su-25 combination could not cost-effectively fulfil many of the specific tasks required of a versatile fighter-bomber in a low-intensity conflict like Chechnya. The PGM capability of the MiG-27K/M/D was sorely missed in that campaign. The Flogger required fewer maintenance man-hours per flight hour (somthing to consider when you are a cash strapped air force like Russia in the early 90s), more reliable. If the RuAF had properly put all those low airframe MiG-27s in flyable storage instead of just parking them in the open exposed to the elements they might had been able to use the MiG-27 in Chechnya and still fly them today.

the posts on Isreali Phantoms got me thinking… are there eny Kifirs left in service, or did they go years ago.. eny A-4s left as well.. i suppose F-16s replaced all these…

As far as I know the Kfir is out of operational service with the IDF/AF and for the right price would sell you one! 🙂 The Kfir is still in service with Ecuador, Sri Lanka and cannot remember if Columbia operates Kfirs or not. The TA-4H is still used by the IDF/AF as an advanced trainer not sure if the single seat A-4H is still used as an active combat aircraft but I do not think so.

I’m not directly accusing anyone of anything right now, but I think it’s important to acknowledge the tragic fact that there is a live conflict going on and that innocent people are getting killed and wounded. This isn’t a movie or a video game.

And in the middle of all this, world attention on the far greater issues in Africa, at least in terms of human lives, seems very limited.

I am quite aware that this is not a video game or movie, being a Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran of now two deployments to this region I know this. It is very unfortunate that innocent lives are being taken on BOTH sides of the border of Israel and Lebanon. But you cannot negotiate or talk to terrorist the only way to “talk” to a terrorist is the proper application of high explosives. Godspeed to the Israel Air Force.

When operating a warship in the littorals as this Israeli warship was doing the crew will not have much if any time to react to a missile launch. I do not know how far off the beach the ship was but if it was providing gun fire support I suspect no more than 10 miles off the coast. If that was the case if this was an Iraninan Silkworm missile as I suspect we are talking 60-120 seconds before impact with the ship. I am not familiar with the Israeli CIWS for this class of ship but her crew I am sure was already at GQ (general quarters) but the CIWS opearators would have to be on the ball to engage a missile at such a short range.

U.S.S Iwo Jima and the embarked 24th MEU are heading to the waters of Cyprus for possible U.S. civilian evacuations.

Thank you Erez for the Israeli “insider” info on the current status of the Kurnas fleet with the IAF. I just checked a few websites and the official IDF/AF website and they all say the same the F-4E is in storage at various bases. But for a moment my heart skipped a beat to hear the Sledgehammer was back in action wearing the Star of David putting ordnance down range.