Israel escalates southern Lebanon bombings: Inside the IAF arsenal
Lebanese Hezbollah has been conducting attacks on northern Israeli territories for months using drones and unguided rockets. After disrupting Hezbollah using modified pagers, Israel began a full-scale bombardment of targets in southern Lebanon. Here, we present what the Israeli Air Force (IAF) uses.
Hezbollah is a Shiite political organisation with open support from Iran and is a significant element of Lebanon's government structures. The organisation boasts a well-prepared militia comprising around 20,000 active members and a similar number of reservists (according to analyses by the Center for Strategic and International Studies). Therefore, Hezbollah poses a greater threat than Hamas fighters from Gaza.
One important factor is the favourable operational environment, which is an independent, though politically unstable, Lebanon. Hezbollah practically creates an alternative infrastructure there, offering, among other things, healthcare facilities and charitable activities, which translates into widespread social support.
This allowed nearly unpunished rocket attacks on northern Israeli territory using, among others, BM-21 Grad or BM-27 Uragan rocket systems. Now, Israel has decided to start an active campaign to bomb Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon practically.
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The IAF used its F-16C/D "Barak", F-16I "Sufa", F-15I "Ra'am" and possibly even F-35I "Adir" aircraft to drop precision weapons on located and identified Hezbollah weapon depots.
Israel once again used guided bombs from the GBU Paveway, JDAM, or SPICE families. Depending on the model, these can weigh between 125 kg and 900 kg. However, lighter bombs are preferred because a precision hit within a few metres does not require a very strong explosion, and the aircraft can carry smaller bombs.
This allows for attacking more targets during a single flight and reduces the scale of collateral damage unavoidable when attacking targets in built-up areas. For such tasks, Israel has, for example, 115 kg bombs known as MLGB and MPR bombs from Elbit Systems, whose lightest 230 kg version can penetrate even a metre of reinforced concrete while having a much smaller blast radius than would be expected from its power.
The most common bombs are those guided by satellite and inertial navigation, well suited for destroying stationary targets. It is worth noting that Hezbollah cannot jam GPS like the Russians, so in the case of Israeli bombings, the precision remains below 10 metres.
The second category includes bombs guided by a reflected laser beam, allowing for hitting moving targets but requiring, for example, a drone illuminating the target with a laser pointer until the moment of impact. The third category includes bombs with an electro-optical seeker that sees the thermal image of the target, used, for example, in SPICE modules, ensuring pinpoint precision like laser-guided solutions while operating fully autonomously (the seeker itself searches for and identifies the target).
