Attack on Osirekt - Iraqi Atomic Energy Facility

With the onset of the war imposed by Iraq, the Air Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran, like other military forces, fought in battle and was among the first forces to defend the country and the people. The air force played an important role during the holy defense with successive attacks on air bases, ammunition and tanks factories, and laboratories. At the outbreak of the war, the air force chose several targets for bombing, and most of them were part of the main Ba'athist archetypes of Iraq and heavily protected them. One of the most important goals that Iraq strongly protected from and claimed to be an impenetrable barrier was the Osirak Atomic Energy Facility. In one of the far-off areas of Iraq, the Ba'athists even said that this facility could play a major role in the future of war.

This facility was very important for Iraq and for Saddam Hussein. At that time, France, which was recognized as one of the most important allies in Iraq, sent its experts to Iraq to launch the plant more quickly. Saddam set up Osirek's nuclear facility with the help of French experts and intended to launch nuclear tests there. He was pursuing only one purpose to construct the facility, which was to build an atomic bomb. This article has been announced by Saddam many times. In his studies, he publicly announced that Iraq would be the first Arab country to build an atomic bomb and achieve its technology.

All neighboring countries knew well that the existence of an atomic state like Iraq, which had a bloodthirsty dictatorship like Saddam Hussein, was a great danger for all the countries of the region. It was clear to all the countries of Iran, in particular, that Saddam would not be subjected to any crimes by accessing the atomic bomb. Most foreign experts also believed that if Saddam had access to an atomic bomb, he would certainly have to wait for another global catastrophe.

Given the special importance of this facility for Iraq, the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force decided to overthrow the facility. The preliminary design work was carried out and the initial maps were finalized. Due to the high importance of this facility for Iraq, it was heavily protected. There were all kinds of ground-to-air protection around the Osirak facility, including the Sam 6 missile site, 2 km south-east of the facility, the French Roland 2 missiles at 500 meters and 30 to 40 anti-aircraft guns And 57 mm, all guided by radar.

The Roland 2 missiles provided by Iraq were precisely the ones used by the French themselves and no export samples were provided to Iraq, due to the fact that these missiles did not have Iraq to protect Osirak. , But the main purpose of the protection of the building and the French staff working at the facility. The main problem of the air force pilots of the Islamic Republic of Iran was the same missile as the Rowland 2 missiles. The ECMs installed on Iranian phantoms only had the ability to disrupt the Sam 2, 3, and 6 missile systems, and the air force did not have any device to disrupt the operation of the Roland II missiles. For this reason, two principles have to be followed in this operation: first, the lightness of the fighters and the speed of the attacks.

All stages of the design of the operation were carried out quickly. Due to the sensitivity of the operation and its complexity, some of the best pilots were selected. According to the above, the pilots should try to keep up the strong defense of this area with the help of God Almighty to perform this operation at very low altitude with the maximum possible speed and using personal skills. It was supposed to refuel airplanes because of the large number of aircraft. For this purpose, a Boeing 707 bunker is scheduled to be deployed near the border with TomTech dual-barreled escort so that phantoms can refuel, and tomcats will protect the tanker so that the enemy foes will not attack it.

Then the phantoms are divided into two groups. The first group will increase its elevation to cross the border to see Iraqi radars and distract them from the second group. At this time, the second group should lower its altitude and attack the Osirek at maximum speed. Elevating the height for the first group was very dangerous, because with the increase in altitude, the probability of targeting the first group by ground-to-air missiles increased by 80%, but brave pilots accepted the dangers. The first group would have bombed Baghdad's power plant. The possibility of returning fighter aircraft was very low, so all the selected pilots were notified of the matter and noted that if they did not want to announce that anyone would replace them. But Shojaa Delan, a sharp-headed air force, was not willing to change their place.

The Hamdan Shooting Base, one of the most important airbases in Iran, was the agent of the operation. The night before the operation, they were awake by the order of the technical authorities until the morning. They were tasked to operate four F-4 fighter jets in the dark of the night and in keeping with the protection principles.

Each plane was equipped with six 500-pound MK82 bombs and two Sparrow radar airguns . Also, the locations of the powerful 20-millimeter machine gun cartridges loaded the phantom M61 with a maximum shotgun. The last required checks were also carried out, and the factors of all the fighter's capabilities were also overcome.

The day of the operation came. At the first hours of the morning of the eighth of October, 1359, four armed phantoms belonging to the 33rd Battalion Battalion of Hamedan's Third Base were stationed at the beginning of the flight. With the permission of the tower of care, in under a few seconds all four of them moved in the heart of the sky and moved to the frontier. At the same time, a 707 bomber flew with the Escort of two Phantom long-armed Tomcat strikes and went to the Phantom metropolis. At the static point, the phantoms deal with the fuel tanker and the refueling is done.

After the second group crosses the border, the first group immediately lowers its altitude and is quickly deployed to Baghdad's power plant in Iraq, while the second group was on the way to the Osirak facility. The second group had a long and hard way. Due to the high speed of the phantoms and also the low-altitude flight, airplanes could hit each other at night with electricity cables and natural hazards.

Eventually, this route went up and the phantoms reached the Osiraq facility. Around 4 kilometers of the facility, the Phantom prepared for a final blow, so they quickly increased their altitude, and in an accurate position with an accurate dash, all 12 of their bombs dropped off the target.

The total time that phantoms were on the site did not reach 6 seconds, so neither of the facilities at the facility even had the opportunity to shoot the planes. At the same time and at another point in the first group, the first group has succeeded in destroying it with a blast attack on the power plant near Baghdad. The operations of this group were carried out so thoroughly that the city of Baghdad did not attack the power until a few days after that.

After the operation, the Iraqis claimed that the Iranian phantom attack was unsuccessful and the damage was very low. But he realized the depth of the catastrophe that occurred to him. In another hilarious claim, it claims that the attack was Israeli, and they did it by changing the color of their phantoms in the form of Iranian phantoms.

One of the old Phantom pilots describes this operation as follows: "If the damage to an air strike was low by 12 bombs of 500 pounds on a small target, such as Osirek, our aircraft during the war such as chicken broods only rocked the Iraqis. But all these words only represented one thing, and the heavy losses came to Oysirake."

After a few days after the end of the operation, the Air Force decided to take photographs of the area to get damages from the area. A Phantom Phantom was set up to identify the "Arraf 4" on the area and make the necessary photographs. Check the damage to Oysirake. Thus, a phantom identification "Araf 4" was escorted to the target by the escort of two phantoms armed with air-to-air missiles.

After entering the Iraqi soil, escort phantoms are changing their position to attract the attention of Iraqi radars to keep Phantom afar off without interruption. Identifying the phantom, while not carrying any ammunition, was moving down the high altitude with ultrasonic velocity towards Oysirake, and eventually entered the area at very low elevations from the south of Osirek, and quickly crossed the Osirak facility. At the moment the phantom cameras were detected, they were recording photos after the operation. Phantom identification immediately circulates and moves to Iran at all speed. Near the border, they were waiting for him by two armed phantoms, and the phantom was identified with their escort to the health of Hamedan Air Base.

After the advent of the photos, the reality was re-exposed, and the damage was very heavy. In the course of several days, French experts had witnessed the re-entry of Iranian airplanes in the region, which, according to Iraqi officials, was an inedible fortress. After this operation, many of these experts leave the country halfway through their fears and return to their country, and thus another gold leaf will be recorded in the Air Force's Air Force Record of the Islamic Republic of Iran.