Fifteen KC-135 tankers registered to a shadowy company named AS-3 Air Lease Limited had taken off from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey earlier in the day. All of the planes had overflown Iraqi airspace to land and refuel at various American bases around the Middle East. All fifteen were now orbiting at 22,000 feet over the western end of the Persian Gulf. Israeli crews manned each plane and communicated with a nearby Eitam providing airborne warning and control. Ten F-16 Fighting Falcons were flying CAP.
The first planes to refuel behind the big tankers were not returning to Israel. Three F-16I Sufas and four F-15C Eagles refueled quickly and headed east at high speed. All of the Sufas and two of the Eagles descended to several hundred feet, while two Eagles stayed at altitude. The planes were heading due east across the waters of the Persian Gulf toward the Bushehr nuclear power plant.
Once the Bushehr attack aircraft had refueled, airplanes of the IAF returning from Iran began to take their turns being refueled. At 22,000 feet, over the course of the following hour, 146 thirsty Israeli warplanes refueled for the flight home over northern Saudi Arabia — but the plan had called for 150 planes to get refueled. In addition to Gadget’s F-15I, two F-16Is and an F-15C had been shot down while executing their missions.
66 — A Visit to Bushehr
In the air over Bushehr, F-15 Eagles engaged several MiG-29 and F-4 Phantom fighters attempting to defend the nuclear reactor complex. The Iranians fought bravely but were drawn away from the real action. Flying under 500 feet, two of the Sufas lined up on their targets. The air defense radars around Bushehr had already been destroyed by the earlier attack from the Boeing B-737-400F — the last successful action taken by the cargo plane before being shot down 46 minutes earlier.
Each of the two Sufas had four GBU-32 laser-guided bombs weighing a little over 1,000 pounds. The bombs were general purpose bombs with no ability to penetrate reinforced concrete structures. The target of one of the planes was the control room at Bushehr. The assignment of the other was to destroy the back-up generators that powered the nuclear plant’s pressurized water pumps and the power sub-station that connected Bushehr to the electric grid.
The planning to destroy Bushehr had been the most debated aspect of Block G. Unlike Arak, which had not been operational and now lay in ruins with minimal radioactive impact, Bushehr was an operating nuclear power plant with a full fuel complement that had been running at its maximum design power since the summer of 2012. The same discussion between the President of the United States and Prime Minister Cohen during which the president agreed to send two MOPs to Israel, had become heated over the fate of Bushehr. The president thought he had elicited a promise of no attack on Bushehr. Now, the prime minister’s view of what he had promised was being implemented. The key was to ensure no breach in the outer containment building of the nuclear reactor building made of up to three meters of reinforced concrete.
For the planners of Block G, Bushehr had only one purpose — it was a test bed to eventually provide Iran with plutonium for nuclear warheads. There had been no question of the need to target the facility, only intense discussion about how. Eventually, discussion gave way to planning and planning gained its own momentum.
Both F-16I Sufas designated their targets and dropped two bombs initially, then circled back to drop two more. The third Sufa pilot assessed the damage done before deciding to put two more bombs on the control room and two more on the electrical sub-station.
What was intentionally untouched was the emergency shutdown bunker and its two diesel generators. This room had only one function: to safely shutdown the reactor in the event of a complete failure of the main control room. Now the control room and its Iranian and Russian technicians was obliterated and on fire. The Israeli planners hoped that the emergency shutdown bunker was manned, as it was supposed to be at all times, but no one at Mount Olympus was sure.
The betting pool on a catastrophic core meltdown put the odds at 50–50. The scientists advising the prime minister had told him that the odds were high that the Iranians or their Russian advisors would successfully shut down the reactor, but that if they didn’t, any partial meltdown of the core should be contained within the main containment building. What the prime minister hoped for — and it was a hope not shared with any other person — was that the core would at least melt down partially, rendering the Bushehr Plant nothing but an expensive clean-up project.
Cohen was hoping for Three Mile Island, but everyone dreaded another Chernobyl. The fuse had been lit by Israeli bombs and only time and the courage and skill of surviving Iranian and Russian technicians would reveal the ultimate outcome.
67 — Going Home
At Shangri-La in the Iraqi desert, Major Gideon Meyer waited outside the rear ramp of the last remaining operational C-130 still on the ground. Over an hour long period, 45 planes of the IAF, all of which had been on SEAD missions, had passed through Mudaysis Airfield for refueling on their way home. During the 20 minutes since the last F-16 took off for home, two KC-130s had taken off with the air traffic control trailers and most of the men.
As Meyer stood there, the commander of a small demolition team walked up to him. “Everything is set,” said the demolition expert. He held up a small radio transmitter to show the major. Once he pushed the button, all of the equipment they had wired to explode, which included the Ilyushin tankers and the KC-130 that had survived a rough landing but could not take off safely, would be on a two minute fuse.
Meyer motioned the demolition man into the cargo cabin of the KC-130. “Join your men. We shouldn’t be much longer.” They were now waiting only for the last of the four vehicles that had controlled traffic during the evening. About six minutes later, a Humvee painted in the colors of the Iraqi National Army pulled onto the tarmac and four men exited and ran to the back of the plane carrying all their portable equipment. Finally the major stepped away from the plane and pulled a small flare gun from his pocket. He fired a single orange flare into the sky. It was the last call. Anyone not on this plane was on his own.
Several minutes later, five remaining Shaldag soldiers, including their commander, emerged from the darkness and jogged to the KC-130. Meyer saluted each man as he boarded the plane and followed the Shaldag commander up the ramp.
While the plane was at the end of the taxiway preparing to start its takeoff roll, the demolition leader pushed the button on his radio transmitter. The plane took off and circled once to witness the expected explosions. Shortly after takeoff, six fireballs lit up the night. In addition to the four aircraft blown up, the two pickup trucks and their jamming equipment, which would have been flown home had the fourth KC-130 been operational, were blown.
The KC-130 headed home.
Epilogue
The sirens first sounded in Tel Aviv two hours after the concept codenamed Esther’s Sling successfully destroyed Fordow and Natanz. Iran launched the first of a salvo of five Shahab-3 missiles before all of the aircraft of the IAF had returned to Israel. Only two of the medium range ballistic missiles were successfully intercepted by Arrow 2 missiles. The assurances of Defense Minister Avner had proven to be fleeting.
Two of the missiles landed in unpopulated spots — one in a field north of the city and one in the Mediterranean Sea. But one warhead, comprised of over 2,000 pounds of high explosive, detonated in the top floors of a tall condominium building not far from the Kirya. In the middle of the night — with most residents of Tel Aviv assuming that the sirens signaled yet another vain attempt by Hamas to strike Tel Aviv — few heeded the sirens. This was not a homemade rocket fired by Hamas. More than 90 died in the explosion and subsequent fire.