US-led armada secretly drilled bombing
Iranian targets, missile defense with Israel DEBKAfile: June 21, 2010, 6:54 PM (GMT+02:00)
SuperHornets taking off from US carrierThe armada of 10 US warships plus an Israeli and German battle vessel each,
which transited the Suez Canal Friday, June 18, has
reached the Persian Gulf,
debkafile's military sources report.
But first, from June 6 through June 10, the USS Harry S. Truman carrier Strike Group
was deployed 50 miles off the shore of southwestern Israel,
secretly drilling the
interception of incoming Iranian, Syrian and Hizballah missiles and rockets against
US and Israeli targets in the Middle East. This was first revealed by DEBKA on June 18.
The fleet let by the Truman then headed for the Persian Gulf through the Suez Canal
accompanied by an Israeli missile ship (not identified) and the German missile frigate
FGS Hessen F221.
For five days and night, the Truman's sixty F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter bombers
took off on simulated bombing missions against targets set up by the Israeli Air Force
at its firing range on the Nevatim Base-28, in the Negev desert southeast of Be'er
Sheva - one of its three big air bases.
The exercise was prompted by rising tensions from Syria's deployment of advanced
Scud missiles for Hizballah on its border with Lebanon. it took place not far from the
spot where Israeli commandos subsequently raided the Turkish Mavi Marmara on May 31.
The exercise had 60 American F-16 fighter jets landing at Israeli Air Force facilities
from bases in Germany and Romania, refueling and taking off with Israeli fighter bombers
to practice long-range bombing missions over the Red Sea and the Mediterranean and
drill air-to-air combat along the way.
Both Washington and Jerusalem
withheld public exposure of this US-Israeli aerial
exercise, dubbed Juniper Stallion 2010.
President Barack Obama ordered all US missile
interceptors in the Middle East to go on war alert in the second week of June, including
batteries aboard US Sixth Fleet vessels on the Mediterranean and the US Fifth Fleet in
the Persian Gulf.
debkafile's military sources add that Israel's missile's shield, including Arrow anti-missile missiles,
was similarly on standby.
It was decided at the White House to stage the Juniper Stallion exercise only eight months
after Juniper Cobra 10, the biggest joint war maneuver the US and Israel had ever conducted
against missile attack, after receiving new intelligence that Iran, Syria and Hizballah had almost
doubled their operational armory of medium-range missiles.
Switching over to a tough line, US defense secretary Robert Gates warned a Senate panel
on June 18 that Iran could fire "scores or hundreds" of short- and medium-range missiles
against Europe - in salvoes rather than one or two at a time.
Four days later, Gates told a Fox interviewer: "I don't think we're prepared to even talk about
containing a nuclear Iran. I think? our view still is we do not accept the idea of Iran having
nuclear weapons." Asked whether a military strike was preferable, he said all options remain
on the table although some time is left for working on problem."