Iran canceled air show when Russia warned Israel planned to destroy all 140 warplanes

[shravan]

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=6040
DEBKAfile's Iranian and intelligence sources disclose that Moscow warned Tehran Friday April 17 that Israel was planning to destroy all 140 fighter-bombers concentrated at the Mehr-Abad Air Force base for an air show over Tehran on Iran's Army Day the following day. The entire fleet was accordingly removed to remote bases and the display cancelled.

In the first week of April, Tehran announced it would stage its biggest air show ever to dramatize a ceremonial military parade in the capital on April 18. Iran would show the world that it is capable of fighting off an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities. Instead only four aircraft flew over the saluting stand. Iranian media explained that the big show was cancelled due to "bad weather and poor visibility," when in fact Tehran basked in warm and sunny weather.

Moscow had informed the Iranians that its spy satellites and intelligence sources had picked up preparations at Israeli Air Force bases to destroy the 140 warplanes, the bulk of the Iranian air force, on the ground the night before the display, leaving its nuclear sites without aerial defense. A similar operation wiped out the entire Egyptian air fleet in the early hours of the 1967 war.

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[Mediocrates]

Thanks, Russia. I hope the first nuke hits you.

[NewsGuy]

Moscow had informed the Iranians that its spy satellites and intelligence sources had picked up preparations at Israeli Air Force bases to destroy the 140 warplanes, the bulk of the Iranian air force, on the ground the night before the display, leaving its nuclear sites without aerial defense.
Russia is basically an enemy of Israel (and the US).

The axis of evil is a live and kicking.

[shravan]

Russia is basically an enemy of Israel (and the US).

The axis of evil is a live and kicking.

Iranian nuclear facility at Bushehr has a S-300 battery.

[NewsGuy]

... And plenty of other Russian nuclear technology.

Very good that the Iranians were freaking out enough to cancel their entire air show. They must be on high alert, which is nerve-racking and expensive.

[shravan]

... And plenty of other Russian nuclear technology.


S-300 is a Surface to Air Missile.
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'We'll neutralize S-300 if they're sold to Iran'

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1218104239541&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

[Mediocrates]

Or, the Iranian Airforce can't get more than 8 planes in the air.......

[baggi]

eh is this really true?? are we this close to war ?

sounds pretty crazy :unsure:

[Mediocrates]

Or it's simply a statement that the new Soviets have Israel under constant surveillance and are sharing this intel with Iran. I really don't believe that Iran has 140 functioning modern combat aircraft.

[yonatan]

DEBKAfile's Iranian and intelligence sources disclose that Moscow warned Tehran Friday April 17 that Israel was planning to destroy all 140 fighter-bombers concentrated at the Mehr-Abad Air Force base for an air show over Tehran on Iran's Army Day the following day. The entire fleet was accordingly removed to remote bases and the display cancelled.

Thanks for the post. Underscores the paranoid hysteria of the Iranian government and military.

Reminds me of how the Russians fed false intelligence to Egypt and Syria back in May of 1967 - telling them that the Israelis were preparing to invade the Golan, and prompting Egypt to enter into a chain reaction of sabre rattling that eventually led to war. As if the Israelis would risk the lives of their pilots to fly hundreds of miles to destroy the Iranian air force - and then elect NOT to bomb Iran's nuclear program into the stone age. The Israeli Air Force is not about to show their hand just so they can add to their collection of MiG parts.

[shravan]

Reminds me of how the Russians fed false intelligence to Egypt and Syria back in May of 1967 - telling them that the Israelis were preparing to invade the Golan, and prompting Egypt to enter into a chain reaction of sabre rattling that eventually led to war.

-------
Michael Oren: The Syrians who played such a prominent role in precipitating this war cleverly stay out of it. The rumor in the Arab world--the conventional wisdom in the Arab world is that the Syrians were willing to fight to the last Egyptian. And it's true. They stayed out of this war but they were shelling thousands of shells onto Israeli settlements. The Israeli government voted not to attack Syria. This is an interesting episode.

Peter Robinson: The Cabinet votes not to attack?

Michael Oren: They're afraid of Soviet intervention. The Soviets were so closely allied with the Syrians, they were afraid if Israel struck at Syria then the Soviets would intervene and destroy Israel. Many of the Israeli leaders in 1967 had grown up in Russia. They remembered the Cossacks and they were afraid of their--there's the nerd part. Okay.
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As if the Israelis would risk the lives of their pilots to fly hundreds of miles to destroy the Iranian air force - and then elect NOT to bomb Iran's nuclear program into the stone age. The Israeli Air Force is not about to show their hand just so they can add to their collection of MiG parts.

Debkafile is not that reliable. But its true Iran had canceled the Air Show.

[Mil]

Cool - the Russians are f***ing with them!

[Tonto]

I don't "get" the Russian attitude. On one hand they are dealing very, very harshly with the muslim Chechnians. Reports of the "death squads", murders, tortures and strong arm tactics that would made a California libtard pee his bed. The Russians are butchering Chechens. And then you hear something like this where they "rat out" an Israeli attack. What's up with that? Is it that Iran is such a good cash flow business partner, or something else? Or do they know that the Iran nuke program is a paper tiger like Saddam's WMDs that everybody swore he had and nobody could find? Are the Iranians really that close to nukes or are they faking it to terrify the ME into seeing things their way? Mossad says they are for real on the nukes. Whatever they do, they do it with that goal, dominance of the ME, and they don't much care who gets hurt in the process. They will sacrifice anything or anybody without a blink. Cold fish.

[bararallu]

For one, Russians don't have too many Shia that can be radicalized by Iran. The Chechens BTW were *relatively secular* until the brutal methods the Russians employed against them and then they made a deal with the devil, Saudi Arabia... for $ and education and Jihad.

[Mil]

Iran can take any cause it wants to including protection of Eskimos in Greenland.... or Tartars in the Crimea. The Russians are complete idiots. Iran can always take up a cause inside of Russia - easily. Or in Armenia, or where-ever else on the periphery, along the very long border.... especially if they get a nuke....

[bararallu]

I think there are a regional alliances (esp in the Caucuses), and they are not clear to most people who live outside the area. There is a shift afoot though (note Georgia), mostly due to the vacuum Washington is presenting.

[Tonto]

Iranian nuclear facility at Bushehr has a S-300 battery.

That's the best in the world. That's why the Russians ratted out Israel. They want the mullahs all scared and putting big bucks in Russia's pockets for more defence weapons.:rock: Yeah, sell 'em the guns, rockets and support tech......rent them Russian technicians (Lord knows the Iranians can't trust Iranians, at least the smart, educated ones), big bucks!!! How many S-300 batts can Iran afford? You can bet the Russians will milk them for every rial/rupee/ruble/peso/dinar/whatever they can get. Then when the techs go home to Russia, it'll be 3-4 years when they deteriorate and become useless....and they buy new ones!:clap:

[Mil]

Posted by Tonto:

That's the best in the world. That's why the Russians ratted out Israel.

The Russians did not rattle out Israel.... Israel is hell of a lot more popular in Russia then Iran especially now that Israel has elected a fluent Russian speaking FM. The main reason why Russia sells to Iran is because it can and Iran does not have too many places from where it can buy.

The problem is that dealing with Iran, especially in the matters nuclear, is a stupid idea to begin with...

[Mediocrates]

Israel is probably getting a land based variant of the SM-3 which is the world's best anti missile missile.

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/Land-Based-SM-3s-for-Israel-04986/#more-4986

[shravan]

Has the New Cold war started ?

[ArthurCrandall]

Some of those new eastern immigrants could potentially be russian spys ya know:) Also this is just another geopolitical game being played out by US interests and Russian interests. Russia might feel that the only way to even out this game is to help introduce it's own super power in the form of iran to counter the usa's regional super power, israel.

[Mediocrates]

More importantly, Russia is happy to sell all the fighters and attack planes they can. The problem for them is they aren't anxious to see them decimated in a head to head fight though.

[Mil]

Plus not too many places are actually buying Russian stuff these days. The Russian standards on potential customers have always been low.... even during Soviet times. Anyways, Russia is still a "oil" economy and you never know how crazy those Autollahs might get if one day there might be an oil crisis and when Iran might not be happy with their neighbor to the North (or vice versa). There are waaaaayyyyyyyyy too many Muslim causes to support in Russia and on the periphery....

[ArthurCrandall]

More importantly, Russia is happy to sell all the fighters and attack planes they can. The problem for them is they aren't anxious to see them decimated in a head to head fight though.

Depends. Which models are going head to head on which territory. I would say the edge is with israel. Not because of military hardware but training and experience in the cockpit. That is if i disregard other variables that can possibly tilt it one way or another.

[ArthurCrandall]

Plus not too many places are actually buying Russian stuff these days. The Russian standards on potential customers have always been low.... even during Soviet times. Anyways, Russia is still a "oil" economy and you never know how crazy those Autollahs might get if one day there might be an oil crisis and when Iran might not be happy with their neighbor to the North (or vice versa). There are waaaaayyyyyyyyy too many Muslim causes to support in Russia and on the periphery....

Are you suggesting that russian muslims in general would stab russia in the back?

[Mil]

? Any examples?

[Mediocrates]

Depends. Which models are going head to head on which territory. I would say the edge is with israel. Not because of military hardware but training and experience in the cockpit. That is if i disregard other variables that can possibly tilt it one way or another.


Well except for the point that Russia has grounded all of its own MiG-29's pending an investigation into why their airframes are disintegrating. Similarly Their Su-27/30's are suffering through QA problems and delivery problems. Flight time reliability is a two-fold problem - 1) it limits combat usefulness and 2) it limits training time. It also increases maintenance time and maintenance is something that Arab and Iranian air crews are notoriously bad at.

[Mil]

Posted by Arthur.

Are you suggesting that russian muslims in general would stab russia in the back?

I am suggesting that Iran will find a cause inside of Russia to support.... which is not a hard thing to do. May be you haven't paid attention to the Islamic terrorism happening in Russia.

The periphery in the South also has Muslim majority states which a country like Iran can influence, some easily, if they wanted. Some of those former Soviet republics, like Turkmenistan already have Muslim extremist....

[ranchcer]

I would call this airpower exhibition provocative bluff and its cancellation due to dust/air pollution a big joke.
Israel could ground Iran's aeronautical museum anytime, but why should a single country go it alone when Iran's uranium enrichment program is everyone's problem ?
Anyway the 5th fleet will stay put for now as the American voters are giving Obama good marks on his foreign policies and want him to play his best hand a while longer. One crisis at a time :rolleyes:

[Toadstool46]

Ya.. watch if there is any terrorist activity in the US and they will be wanting Bush and his methods back to go kick some butt.

[ThetaRay]

One crises at a time... well, he had better prioritize these crises better. I've been waiting to wake up to the news that "Israel has decimated all Iranian nuclear sites, airfields, ports, and suspected front companies in Tehran". This time last year I could have sworn they were going to bomb the hell outta them, with the air exercise over the Mediterranean. Now we are just waiting for ol' Obama to jump on the bandwagon. Too bad he is more interested in appeasement by apology than action for prevention.

[ahmed feesal]

Israel can not threaten Iran in any Aalashkal because of the strategic dimension and the transport of troops and Arab forces find them

[bararallu]

"Arab Forces" LOL

[ThetaRay]

"Arab Forces" LOL


:rofl: :rofl: :clap::lol:

[bararallu]

:rofl: :rofl: :clap::lol:

"Giant Ants" :p

"Arab Forces" - what we have here folks is a no Non sequitur + oxymoron in one.

[Mil]

Actually most likely American troops.

[takeo]

I think if Iran was planning an assault on an Israeli airshow, Russian intelligence would inform Israel as well.

[Yala]

This is the most retarded "intelligence" report I have ever heard. Reminds me of Seymour Hersh's report of imminent Israeli strikes on Iran in 2006. Pure garbage.