Practise, practise, practise

unverified blog link to a Greek story about an Israeli Air Force strike package buzzing the Greek Islands

Distance from Israel to Greek Islands is a bit shorter than to parts of Iran, but not by much (~ 1200km vs 1600km if my map reading skills don't fail me).

Interesting contingency exercise.

Hm, www.diplomatia.gr looks to be the real thing.
Their news section does not have english translation yet but the article is at http://www.diplomatia.gr/news.php and the translation looks plausible, up to the extent of my limited ability to transliterate.

Now, if I only knew someone who was fluent in greek...

UPDATE: gratuitously promoted from comments.

The Israelis have F15-I "Thunder" variants on the Strike Eagle and F16-I "Storm" long range fighters - if I were them, and looking at options to strike Iran, the target would be Bushehr, they'd have to cross Jordan (and figure Iran would be warned) - probably refuel over southern Iraq and leave the tankers and EW plane there on racetracks, use the F16-Is to sweep any Iranian planes, and the F15-I as bombers - one squadron of each I'd guess.
May use all 12 F-15s on target, or have half take out air defence sites and half to attack the reactor. They'll want to do a stand-off attack if they have the ordinance to do so.

Global Security has the IAF kit list
Ah yes. They have 350kg penetrating warhead standoff missiles - AGM-142 "Popeye".

Then scoot back along the south, figuring the Saudis and Kuwaitis are not going to mess with them, stay away from Syria and cross Jordan - Egypt will be slow, won't respond in time, and local fighters can escort them home if the Jordanians take issue.

Iraqis will be furious of course. Iranians probably not amused.

Contingency planning and exercising right now, but I think they will go ahead by mid-April if nothing else happens.
Oh, if they have the political will to do so - things are in a bit of a mess I gather.

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I know somone who is fluent in Greek. He tells me:

It is about 35 Israeli aircraft, including 25 fighter planes that entered Greek airspace on Feb 5 from the direction of Israel without giving appropriate warning to the Greek authorities. The Israelis said that they were conducting an exercise on refueling in flight. The title is "shock and awe at the general administration of the pentagon" (the Greeks have their own pentagon...). The article says it was a breach of international rules.

By Mustafa Mond, FCD (not verified) on 09 Feb 2007 #permalink

Yeah, that was how I read it also, but I am certainly not fluent in Greek.
Also no idea what diplomatia is - looks like a professional web site, could be their equivalent of Foreign Affairs mag, but it could be some fringe thing.

But, the Israelis have F15-I "Thunder" variants on the Strike Eagle and F16-I "Storm" long range fighters - if I were them, and looking at options to strike Iran, the target would be Bushehr, they'd have to cross Jordan (and figure Iran would be warned) - probably refuel over southern Iraq and leave the tankers and EW plane there on racetracks, use the F16-Is to sweep any Iranian planes, and the F15-I as bombers - one squadron of each I'd guess.
May use all 12 F-15s on target, or have half take out air defence sites and half to attack the reactor. They'll want to do a stand-off attack if they have the ordinance to do so.

Then scoot back along the south, figuring the Saudis and Kuwaitis are not going to mess with them, stay away from Syria and cross Jordan - Egypt will be slow, won't respond in time, and local fighters can escort them home if the Jordanians take issue.

Iraqis will be furious of course. Iranians probably not amused.

Contingency planning and exercising right now, but I think they will go ahead by mid-April if nothing else happens.