June 7, 1981: Israel Destroys the Iraqi Nuclear Reactor
Operation Opera was a surprise Israeli air strike that destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor under construction 10.5 miles (17 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad.
The operation was executed by eight heavily-fueled F-16 fighter planes and six F-15s used as a backup. It was the first operational activity of F16 fighters, which were first introduced for use in early 1979, in the U.S. Air Force.
The squad left its base in southern Israel at 3:55 PM. While flying in Jordanian airspace, the team spoke to ground control in Saudi-accented Arabic, pretending to be flying aircraft that simply went off course. They successfully passed through unchallenged.
 |
| :Photo courtesy of Wikimedia One of the Israeli F-16s which participated in the assault (decorated with the operation emblem (a triangle shape |
The operation was executed by eight heavily-fueled F-16 fighter planes and six F-15s used as a backup. It was the first operational activity of F16 fighters, which were first introduced for use in early 1979, in the U.S. Air Force.
The squad left its base in southern Israel at 3:55 PM. While flying in Jordanian airspace, the team spoke to ground control in Saudi-accented Arabic, pretending to be flying aircraft that simply went off course. They successfully passed through unchallenged.
The plans were almost thwarted by King Hussein of Jordan, who was on vacation in Aqaba at the time, and noticed the planes flying overhead. He ordered an alert to warn Iraqi forces, but the message never went through because of a lack of communication.
30 minutes before the arrival of the Israeli planes, a group of Iraqi soldiers manning the anti-aircraft defenses had left their posts for their lunch, turning off their radars.
At 18:35 local time, the F-16s reached their target and went into a dive releasing 16 bombs which were aimed at the reactor complex. The strike itself took less than two minutes and the damage which was inflicted to the nuclear reactor was irreversible.
Although the attack was strongly criticized around the world, 10 years later, the American led coalition faced a nuclear-armed free Iraq during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, and again during the U.S. operation "Iraqi Freedom", in 2003.
:Available in our Etsy shop
