IDF
06-01-2006, 07:26
JERUSALEM
King Ari was worried about this coming operation. The fate of Israel rested now on the decisions to be made by his Generals. He had already made the decision that action had to be taken. Terrorism was on the rise and IDF's Arab neighbors were likely responsible for them or at the least they were allowing them to occur. Israel had long asked its neighbors to stop this. Action had to be taken. All parties except the party representing the Chassidic Jews agreed to this. THe reserves were now mobilized and hell was to be paid.
"Start the operation," ordered the King.
"Yes your highness," responded Fleet Admiral Joseph Jacobson, the new CJCS, the leader of Israeli armed forces.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Israel Navy HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
The port was empty. The bulk of the IDF Northern and Southern fleets had all sailed out of their respective ports a couple of weeks ago for exercises. The ships of the reserve fleet now had missions to take a defensive posture as the regulars were now positioning themselves under the guise of returning after successfully completing exercises. The ships would now be off of Egypt's coast, but well within international waters and with courses taking them to Israel. They were ready to move. The order went out to all ships: LAUNCH OPERATION ARROW. It was a wierd name for Israel as an operation of the same name was an Egyptian one to bomb Israeli civilians. Now OPERATION ARROW would be hitting Egypt.
------------------------------------------------------------------
ISS OZZIE GUILLEN, Mediterranean Sea
The new Guillen was actually the 5th of the infamous Guillen class Super-dreadnought. Israel had problems with a new class of SDNs so 4 heavily modified Guillens were built to supplement the 1 remaining Guillen since 3 others including the 1st of class were sunk. The flaws that led to their sinkings were discovered and fixed.
The new ISS OZZIE GUILLEN was the flagship of the Northern Fleet. She and 2 others of the class were now 150 miles north of Egypt and on a course that would take them to Haifa. They weren't going to Haifa though. They were going to war. The ship had been at General Quarters for 30 minutes now when the message to commence operations came. The 18 30" guns swung to starboard towards defensive positions in Alexandria Egypt as the captain ordered the gun crews to "fire mission." New auto reloaders cut the time for reload from 40 seconds to 30 seconds so every 30 seconds, the ship and 2 of her sisters fired 18 30" ETC shells each at positions that UAVs and satelites had identified as military installations near or in the Egyptian city.
The 3 Guillen class ships weren't alone. There were over 1,000 ships of the IDF Navy opening fire now. Most of them were DDGs or FFGs that didn't have the guns to reach the coast. They each instead fired over a dozen TLAMs with either high explosive warheads or carrying cluster submunitions to the GPS coordinates of various Egyptian airbases, SAM sites, military installations, communication centers, bridges, government buildings, railway centers, and troop formations that satelites or stealthy UAVs had spotted. They were trying to cripple Egypt in one blow.
There were 35 of the Menachem Begin cruisers. They were out of range now, but they and some escorts raced toward the shore where at 80 miles from the coast they would fire the semi-automatic 9 10" guns each of them had. These quick firing guns would be crucial in the operation.
There were also over a dozen Netanyahu class dreadnoughts with 24 inchers that were opening fire on multiple coastal towns where there were shore batteries or bases. They weren't trying to hit civilians, but if shells missed and hit them, it wouldn't be a reason to cease fire.
The carriers of the IDF Navy were now launching their aircraft. First came the F-35Cs that would play the role of "Wild Weasels." They were stealthy and armed with HARMs. They now were going to hunt RADARs and fire their HARMs at them to destroy the RADARs and the SAM or AAA sites that they supported. The F-35s were also armed with AAM, but that was only a secondary objective. Israel expected to take heavy air losses in day 1 of the fighting, but if this operation was successful, they would suffer significantly less in future days if the mission to Suppress Enemy Air Defense with stealth aircraft and cruise missiles worked.
Additional F-35s were armed with JDAMs to put craters in runways that would take a week at least to repair. F/A-18Is were launched carrying various Air-Mud Munitions to bomb enemy ships that were near by. They had some Air-Air missiles should they be confronted. Their operation was assisted when arsenal ships fired a couple hundred SS-N-19 Shipwreck missiles to sink Egyptian Naval units. If they suceeded, the IDF Naval Aviation forces would then bomb enemy troop formations on further sorties that would run around the clock.
It was hoped that the Super-Hornets wouldn't be drawn into air combat. F-14I Tomcats were up and armed with Pheonix missiles with their 120 nm range. They had their powerful search RADARs off. E-2Cs were up and shipboard SPY-1s and LADARs were operating and giving the Israeli fighters all the information they needed to down any bandits from safe ranges.
It was a similar story in the Red Sea. A smaller Naval fleet was doing the same thing on the Eastern coast of Egypt. They had the same objectives to take out airfields and try to cripple Egypt as they had in June of 1967.
-------------------------------------------------------
Beersheba AFB, Israel
The first planes off of the runway under burner were the F-35As. It was the same at every air base of the fabled IAF as they lifted off for war once more. Their mission today was very much like one of June 5, 1967. They like their counterparts that just took off from the carriers were designated as "Wild Weasels" for this operation. They flew SW towards Egyptian theater SAM sites on the border with Israel. When their HARM seakers detected RADAR sources they would open fire and then drop cluster munitions on enemy forces in the area. Additional F-35s would fly deeper to hit enemy bridges, railroads, and airfields.
The next planes to lift off were F/A-22A Raptors armed for nothing but air superiority. The stealth fighters had RADARs switched off as E-3 Sentrys did their job to guide the fighters in towards the Bandits that would take off, if they go the chance to take off that is. Time would tell on how successful the cruise missile strike would be. Their job was to make sure no enemy fighters would hurt the Israeli troops or bombers. Israel had recorded a kill ratio of over 20:1 (some sources had it as high as 30:1) in the air against Egypt during their last war. The IAF pilots wer ready to live up to the record set by their fathers.
The rest of the IAF lifted off. F-117s were set to bomb military installations and further ensure airfields were shut down and SAMs were offline. F-16s carried Air-Mud weapons to hit enemy troops. They would take heavy losses in most cases, but they would hopefully inflict heavier casualties on the enemy. Their priority was to take out artillery that could massacre infantry.
Earlier F-15 models lifted off to fly air defense missions over IDF to ensure that enemy bombers wouldn't hit Israel. F-15I Strike Eagles were carrying some AMRAAMs and ASRAAMs, but they primarily had air-mud weapons to hit enemy defenses. Their pilots were less than pleased to be doing this instead of Air-Air combat, but they did their mission.
96 B-2 Spirits were the first heavy bombers up. They carried 16 2000 lb bombs each to hit heavy enemy buildings that were used to support the Egyptian Industrial base that was supporting the Egpytian Army.
F-111 Aardvarks were now up. They didn't hit troops directly though. They dropped anti-personnel and anti-tank mines that were "smart mines." They had friend/foe identifiers that would not activate if IDF troops or vehicles with correct IFF codes were within their blast zone. This would allow IDF troops to not worry about stepping on them as they advanced. It was hoped that these mines would halt reinforcements or hurt an enemy that fell back.
The IAF still had 800 of the older Kfirs that were really updated Mirage Vs. The Kfirs took off for the role of CAS and would bomb Egyptian troops.
The most important plane of all was the A-10 Aardvark. Over 300 of the venerable anti-tank aircraft took off carrying AGM-65D Maverick AGMs, Sidewinders, and 30mm shells to bust tanks and shoot down aircraft that got close enough.
B-1s were not being used yet in the operation, but they were readied to go up as soon as calls came in that enemy troops were vulnerable after SAMs, AAA, and RADARs were out. B-52s were taking off now, but each plane just fired 8 cruiser missiles and then landed since IAF Generals didn't want to lose B-52s early on.
The new card was the UAV. Many nations had UAVs like the Dark Star and Predator and IDF had them too. Israel actually created the first successful one in the 1980s that became the basis of ones made in the USA in the early 21st century. Israel had always spied on other nations with the small UAVs that could stay in the air for a long time without the enemy finding them. They were much stealthier than the F/A-22 Raptor or F-117. Heck he RADAR signature of the F-117 compared to the UAVs was like taking a B-52s RADAR signature and comparing it the F-117.
IDF had UCAVs. They were UAVs that were armed with Hellfire anti-tank missiles, but newer models also had HARMs to take out enemy air-defense RADARs. 156 of these were launched to hurt enemy defenses and to hit armored vehicles when SAMs were down. It was hoped that this 21st century version of Blitzkreig would be successful. Israel had done this only 1 time before against Egypt and it was successful then.
Now the IAF Generals had to wait and see if their well planned strike would suceed in crippling the Egyptian armed forces as the 1967 strike did. Some of the older Generals were young pilots during the 67 war. They had seen this done once before and hoped they could repeat with newer technology.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Israel's Negev Desert
The Israeli Army was ready to strike also. They would strike simultaneously with the Navy and Air Force.
The first weapons to fire across the border into the Egyptian held Sinai Penninsula would be Artillery. Israel had over a thousand guns of the 155 mm and 203 mm calibers to fire over the border into enemy troops. THere were also 227 mm MLRS rocket systems ready now to fire submunition warheads that were now aimed towards positions that UAVs and satelites had listed as positions of enemy artillery batteries. The shells of the 155 and 203 mm guns were carrying both high explosive warheads taht would destroy a tank if they hit the thin top armor. Some had ICMs (improved conventional munitions). These were submunitions that were fin guided and had sensors to guid them towards troops and armored vehicles. A smaller number carried the smart mines that had the IFF system.
The artillery would continue firing. Their 1st priority would be enemy batteries, but it was hoped MLRS and fighter-bombers would deal with them so they could concentrate on enemy troops. The tube artillery was doing that now, but Generals wanted enemy artillery dealt with so the MLRS system could also fire on troops.
The first troops to advance were mechanized infantry in M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles. The IFVs were like smaller tanks. They had 25 mm guns, machine guns, and TOW missiles. Other troops were more exposed in HMMWVs.
Some infantry had to walk though. These troops were walking around the M5A1 Dayan tanks that were the new mainstay in the IDF Army. Of course many M1A2s remained and Israel would operate the Merkava mk IIIs for decades to come. The tanks were best used as anti-tank weapons. But, they were vulnerable to enemy infantry with ATGMs. That is why it was vital to have foot soldiers tasked to walk exposed with the tanks. The infantry didn't like their position, but it was necessary. The IDF Army was now advancing over the Egyptian Border and into the Sinai Penninsula. The same land Moses had wandered for 40 years only to lead the Jews to the 1 piece of land in the Middle East without any oil.
King Ari was worried about this coming operation. The fate of Israel rested now on the decisions to be made by his Generals. He had already made the decision that action had to be taken. Terrorism was on the rise and IDF's Arab neighbors were likely responsible for them or at the least they were allowing them to occur. Israel had long asked its neighbors to stop this. Action had to be taken. All parties except the party representing the Chassidic Jews agreed to this. THe reserves were now mobilized and hell was to be paid.
"Start the operation," ordered the King.
"Yes your highness," responded Fleet Admiral Joseph Jacobson, the new CJCS, the leader of Israeli armed forces.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Israel Navy HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
The port was empty. The bulk of the IDF Northern and Southern fleets had all sailed out of their respective ports a couple of weeks ago for exercises. The ships of the reserve fleet now had missions to take a defensive posture as the regulars were now positioning themselves under the guise of returning after successfully completing exercises. The ships would now be off of Egypt's coast, but well within international waters and with courses taking them to Israel. They were ready to move. The order went out to all ships: LAUNCH OPERATION ARROW. It was a wierd name for Israel as an operation of the same name was an Egyptian one to bomb Israeli civilians. Now OPERATION ARROW would be hitting Egypt.
------------------------------------------------------------------
ISS OZZIE GUILLEN, Mediterranean Sea
The new Guillen was actually the 5th of the infamous Guillen class Super-dreadnought. Israel had problems with a new class of SDNs so 4 heavily modified Guillens were built to supplement the 1 remaining Guillen since 3 others including the 1st of class were sunk. The flaws that led to their sinkings were discovered and fixed.
The new ISS OZZIE GUILLEN was the flagship of the Northern Fleet. She and 2 others of the class were now 150 miles north of Egypt and on a course that would take them to Haifa. They weren't going to Haifa though. They were going to war. The ship had been at General Quarters for 30 minutes now when the message to commence operations came. The 18 30" guns swung to starboard towards defensive positions in Alexandria Egypt as the captain ordered the gun crews to "fire mission." New auto reloaders cut the time for reload from 40 seconds to 30 seconds so every 30 seconds, the ship and 2 of her sisters fired 18 30" ETC shells each at positions that UAVs and satelites had identified as military installations near or in the Egyptian city.
The 3 Guillen class ships weren't alone. There were over 1,000 ships of the IDF Navy opening fire now. Most of them were DDGs or FFGs that didn't have the guns to reach the coast. They each instead fired over a dozen TLAMs with either high explosive warheads or carrying cluster submunitions to the GPS coordinates of various Egyptian airbases, SAM sites, military installations, communication centers, bridges, government buildings, railway centers, and troop formations that satelites or stealthy UAVs had spotted. They were trying to cripple Egypt in one blow.
There were 35 of the Menachem Begin cruisers. They were out of range now, but they and some escorts raced toward the shore where at 80 miles from the coast they would fire the semi-automatic 9 10" guns each of them had. These quick firing guns would be crucial in the operation.
There were also over a dozen Netanyahu class dreadnoughts with 24 inchers that were opening fire on multiple coastal towns where there were shore batteries or bases. They weren't trying to hit civilians, but if shells missed and hit them, it wouldn't be a reason to cease fire.
The carriers of the IDF Navy were now launching their aircraft. First came the F-35Cs that would play the role of "Wild Weasels." They were stealthy and armed with HARMs. They now were going to hunt RADARs and fire their HARMs at them to destroy the RADARs and the SAM or AAA sites that they supported. The F-35s were also armed with AAM, but that was only a secondary objective. Israel expected to take heavy air losses in day 1 of the fighting, but if this operation was successful, they would suffer significantly less in future days if the mission to Suppress Enemy Air Defense with stealth aircraft and cruise missiles worked.
Additional F-35s were armed with JDAMs to put craters in runways that would take a week at least to repair. F/A-18Is were launched carrying various Air-Mud Munitions to bomb enemy ships that were near by. They had some Air-Air missiles should they be confronted. Their operation was assisted when arsenal ships fired a couple hundred SS-N-19 Shipwreck missiles to sink Egyptian Naval units. If they suceeded, the IDF Naval Aviation forces would then bomb enemy troop formations on further sorties that would run around the clock.
It was hoped that the Super-Hornets wouldn't be drawn into air combat. F-14I Tomcats were up and armed with Pheonix missiles with their 120 nm range. They had their powerful search RADARs off. E-2Cs were up and shipboard SPY-1s and LADARs were operating and giving the Israeli fighters all the information they needed to down any bandits from safe ranges.
It was a similar story in the Red Sea. A smaller Naval fleet was doing the same thing on the Eastern coast of Egypt. They had the same objectives to take out airfields and try to cripple Egypt as they had in June of 1967.
-------------------------------------------------------
Beersheba AFB, Israel
The first planes off of the runway under burner were the F-35As. It was the same at every air base of the fabled IAF as they lifted off for war once more. Their mission today was very much like one of June 5, 1967. They like their counterparts that just took off from the carriers were designated as "Wild Weasels" for this operation. They flew SW towards Egyptian theater SAM sites on the border with Israel. When their HARM seakers detected RADAR sources they would open fire and then drop cluster munitions on enemy forces in the area. Additional F-35s would fly deeper to hit enemy bridges, railroads, and airfields.
The next planes to lift off were F/A-22A Raptors armed for nothing but air superiority. The stealth fighters had RADARs switched off as E-3 Sentrys did their job to guide the fighters in towards the Bandits that would take off, if they go the chance to take off that is. Time would tell on how successful the cruise missile strike would be. Their job was to make sure no enemy fighters would hurt the Israeli troops or bombers. Israel had recorded a kill ratio of over 20:1 (some sources had it as high as 30:1) in the air against Egypt during their last war. The IAF pilots wer ready to live up to the record set by their fathers.
The rest of the IAF lifted off. F-117s were set to bomb military installations and further ensure airfields were shut down and SAMs were offline. F-16s carried Air-Mud weapons to hit enemy troops. They would take heavy losses in most cases, but they would hopefully inflict heavier casualties on the enemy. Their priority was to take out artillery that could massacre infantry.
Earlier F-15 models lifted off to fly air defense missions over IDF to ensure that enemy bombers wouldn't hit Israel. F-15I Strike Eagles were carrying some AMRAAMs and ASRAAMs, but they primarily had air-mud weapons to hit enemy defenses. Their pilots were less than pleased to be doing this instead of Air-Air combat, but they did their mission.
96 B-2 Spirits were the first heavy bombers up. They carried 16 2000 lb bombs each to hit heavy enemy buildings that were used to support the Egyptian Industrial base that was supporting the Egpytian Army.
F-111 Aardvarks were now up. They didn't hit troops directly though. They dropped anti-personnel and anti-tank mines that were "smart mines." They had friend/foe identifiers that would not activate if IDF troops or vehicles with correct IFF codes were within their blast zone. This would allow IDF troops to not worry about stepping on them as they advanced. It was hoped that these mines would halt reinforcements or hurt an enemy that fell back.
The IAF still had 800 of the older Kfirs that were really updated Mirage Vs. The Kfirs took off for the role of CAS and would bomb Egyptian troops.
The most important plane of all was the A-10 Aardvark. Over 300 of the venerable anti-tank aircraft took off carrying AGM-65D Maverick AGMs, Sidewinders, and 30mm shells to bust tanks and shoot down aircraft that got close enough.
B-1s were not being used yet in the operation, but they were readied to go up as soon as calls came in that enemy troops were vulnerable after SAMs, AAA, and RADARs were out. B-52s were taking off now, but each plane just fired 8 cruiser missiles and then landed since IAF Generals didn't want to lose B-52s early on.
The new card was the UAV. Many nations had UAVs like the Dark Star and Predator and IDF had them too. Israel actually created the first successful one in the 1980s that became the basis of ones made in the USA in the early 21st century. Israel had always spied on other nations with the small UAVs that could stay in the air for a long time without the enemy finding them. They were much stealthier than the F/A-22 Raptor or F-117. Heck he RADAR signature of the F-117 compared to the UAVs was like taking a B-52s RADAR signature and comparing it the F-117.
IDF had UCAVs. They were UAVs that were armed with Hellfire anti-tank missiles, but newer models also had HARMs to take out enemy air-defense RADARs. 156 of these were launched to hurt enemy defenses and to hit armored vehicles when SAMs were down. It was hoped that this 21st century version of Blitzkreig would be successful. Israel had done this only 1 time before against Egypt and it was successful then.
Now the IAF Generals had to wait and see if their well planned strike would suceed in crippling the Egyptian armed forces as the 1967 strike did. Some of the older Generals were young pilots during the 67 war. They had seen this done once before and hoped they could repeat with newer technology.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Israel's Negev Desert
The Israeli Army was ready to strike also. They would strike simultaneously with the Navy and Air Force.
The first weapons to fire across the border into the Egyptian held Sinai Penninsula would be Artillery. Israel had over a thousand guns of the 155 mm and 203 mm calibers to fire over the border into enemy troops. THere were also 227 mm MLRS rocket systems ready now to fire submunition warheads that were now aimed towards positions that UAVs and satelites had listed as positions of enemy artillery batteries. The shells of the 155 and 203 mm guns were carrying both high explosive warheads taht would destroy a tank if they hit the thin top armor. Some had ICMs (improved conventional munitions). These were submunitions that were fin guided and had sensors to guid them towards troops and armored vehicles. A smaller number carried the smart mines that had the IFF system.
The artillery would continue firing. Their 1st priority would be enemy batteries, but it was hoped MLRS and fighter-bombers would deal with them so they could concentrate on enemy troops. The tube artillery was doing that now, but Generals wanted enemy artillery dealt with so the MLRS system could also fire on troops.
The first troops to advance were mechanized infantry in M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles. The IFVs were like smaller tanks. They had 25 mm guns, machine guns, and TOW missiles. Other troops were more exposed in HMMWVs.
Some infantry had to walk though. These troops were walking around the M5A1 Dayan tanks that were the new mainstay in the IDF Army. Of course many M1A2s remained and Israel would operate the Merkava mk IIIs for decades to come. The tanks were best used as anti-tank weapons. But, they were vulnerable to enemy infantry with ATGMs. That is why it was vital to have foot soldiers tasked to walk exposed with the tanks. The infantry didn't like their position, but it was necessary. The IDF Army was now advancing over the Egyptian Border and into the Sinai Penninsula. The same land Moses had wandered for 40 years only to lead the Jews to the 1 piece of land in the Middle East without any oil.