Equipped with a booster or first stage, the Khaybar Shekan has an engineless MARV that can reach an alleged maximum speed of Mach 5 at the point of impact
Kamran Momayez
One of three G-550 Nachshon Eitan AEW&C aircraft of the IASF’s 122 Squadron ‘Nachshon’ flew an airborne early warning and situational awareness mission over Israel on October 26
Babak Taghvaee
EMPLOYMENT OF PSYOPS BY THE IDF
Similar to Iran’s Islamic Regime Intelligence Services and Intelligence Protection Organizations, Israeli military intelligence enforces strong censorship to protect IDF operational security. This is accompanied by psychological operations (PSYOPS) conducted by the IDF and Mossad.
Israeli news media were restricted from accessing and sharing accurate information about Israeli airstrikes during Operation Days of Repentance. This was done to prevent Iranian intelligence organizations from obtaining precise details about the operations. Information released by the IDF regarding the airstrikes is very limited and when the Israeli media does report on them, the information is often mixed with misinformation and disinformation.
The existence of Golden Horizon (Blue Sparrow) and ROCKS ALBMs was kept secret in Israel until April 19, 2024, when the IASF launched them at an Iranian S-300PMU-2in Isfahan. The boosters of these missiles were discovered by Iraqi authorities and the Israeli news media was finally permitted by Israel’s censorship office to report on their existence.
Despite the IASF using ALBMs to target various SAM, radar and missile production sites in Iran on October 26, 2024, some Israeli media outlets spread disinformation about the airstrikes. This included reports suggesting that F-35I Adir stealth fighters were responsible for targeting Iranian missile production sites, when these aircraft were mostly involved in CAP missions over Israel and Jordan, or joined the F-16D/Is that conducted airstrikes at five weapon storage sites of the IRGC at Homs, Damascus, Tartus and Sweida in Syria at 0130hrs to 0200hrs that day.
A Pentagon source, speaking anonymously, confirmed that the USAF was not involved in Days of Repentance and did not refuel Israeli fighter jets over Iraq, Jordan or Syria. The USAF’s KC-135 Stratotankers that were airborne over the region on October 26 only refueled A-10Cs, F-15Es and F-16CMs of the USAF on patrol duties.
The MiG-29B returned to Mehrabad International Airport after just 15 minutes, while the F-4Es continued their flights for several more minutes until the IASF conducted the second phase of the airstrike, destroying multiple SAM systems near Iranian petrochemical plants such as the Gas Refinery of Ilam and Oil Refinery of Mahshahr in the southwest of Iran.
It is known that during this phase, one modernized I HAWK, known as Mersad, was targeted at the IRIADF’s SAM site in the north of Mahshahr, resulting in the death of its four operators: Captain Hamzaeh Jahandideh, Captain Sajjad Mansouri, Sergeant Mohammad-Mahdi Shahrokhi and Master Sergeant Mehdi Naqavi at around 0320krs. Delilah cruise missiles are believed to have been used for targeting this site.
One of the three KC-707 tankers of the IASF’s 120 Squadron ‘Desert Giants’ that refuelled the IASF’s fighters on CAP duty over Israel and Jordan during Operation Days of Repentance
Babak Taghvaee
During the second phase, an IRGCASF Sepehr over the horizon (OTH) early warning (EW) radar located on a mountain in the south of Ilam and a Ghadir OTH radar of the IRGCASF located within 15km of Ahvaz were also targeted and destroyed by the IASF using ROCKS and Delilah cruise missiles launched by the F-16I Sufa strike fighters from 107 Squadron.
The targeted OTH EW radars played an important role in the detection of aerial targets with low radar cross-sections, such as F-35I Adir jets in the west of Iran. Information gathered by the radars was fed to the integrated air defense network of the IRIADF’s Khatam Al-Anbiya HQ and transmitted to various SAM sites of the IRIADF and IRGCASF to increase their alertness levels for countering stealth targets such as Israeli F-35s. Because of their destruction, the airspace over the southwest of Iran was made safe for Israeli F-35Is to fly during future airstrikes.
Between Phase 1 and 2 of Operation Days of Repentance of the IASF, the IRIAF was ordered to scramble a MiG-29B and three F-4Es to perform symbolic CAP missions
Keyvan Tavakkoli
After the destruction of the radars, two F-35Is entered the Iranian airspace at around 0325hrs, with one or two precision guided bombs dropped on an empty oil reservoir in Abadan oil refinery near Mahshahr as a show of force to the Iranian regime.
Targeting the missile industry
Two tactical MRBMs from the IRGCASF’s Missile Command posed a serious threat to Israel during Operation True Promise 2.
These were the Khaybar Shekan, with a maximum range of 1,450km and equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) reaching a maximum speed of Mach 5 at the point of impact, and the Fattah 1, with a range of 1,400km and equipped with a rocket-motor equipped MARV reaching a maximum speed of Mach 10 at the point of impact.
Both of these missiles are products of the Shahid Bakeri Industrial Group (SBIG) of the Iranian Ministry of Defense and Logistics of Armed Forces (MODAFL). They were designed and developed in close co-operation with a research and development center of the IRGCASF’s Missile Command in Bidkaneh near Tehran and a similar facility at the IRGCASF’s Space Command in Shahroud. The rocket motor-equipped MARVs were designed, developed and manufactured by the IRGCASF at Shahroud, then shipped to the SBIG facility in Khojir to be installed on the Fattah-1s.
The involvement of SBIG and the two research and development centers of the IRGCASF in the design and development of the missiles that were fired at Israel on October 1 resulted in them being targeted by the IASF in the third phase of the operation at around 0400hrs. Six concrete buildings of the SBIG were hit by six Golden Horizon ALBMs within the Iranian MODAFL’s site in Parchin. The ALBMs created holes at the top of each structure, potentially damaging equipment and machines used for mixing and casting solid-propellant rocket motors for missiles manufactured by the SBIG and the IRGCASF. Among the six targets, at least one was the entrance to an underground high explosive test site used for the development and testing of nuclear warheads.
Simultaneously, Golden Horizon ALBMs launched by two F-15D/Is hit a ballistic missile production line and a research lab of the ballistic missile production line involved in the making of Fattah-1hypersonic MRBMs for the IRGCASF.
The IASF also launched a pair of ALBMs at the factory of Taksaz Industrial Innovators in Shamsabad industrial district, located near Hasanabad-Fashafuyeh village in the southwest of Tehran. The missiles destroyed half of the factory and killed a civilian security guard present at the site. According to the IDF, the privately owned company was involved in the construction and excavation of underground tunnels for Iranian missile bases.
The IRIAF’s 11th TFS at 1st TFB Lashgari has only six airworthy MiG-29s remaining. Four of them are MiG-29B single-seat fighter interceptors, including this one armed with four R-73E IRSRAAMs
Babak Taghvaee
The IRIADF had just three operational S-300PMU-2batteries. Two were in Tehran when the IASF conducted Operation Days of Repentance on October 26, 2024
Babak Taghvaee
CAP MISSIONS OVER JORDAN AND ISRAEL
On October 26, the IASF released multiple images of F-16I Sufa strike fighters of 119 Squadron ‘The Bat’ and 201 Squadron ‘The One’ at Ramon AB and F-15D Baz strike fighters of 133 Squadron ‘Knights of the Twin Tail’ at Tel Nof AB. These fighters had all been armed with air-to-air missiles such as AIM-120B AMRAAM, AIM-7F Sparrow SARH MRAAMs (F-15Ds only) and Python 5 SRAAMs. This indicated that they were some of the fighters involved in CAP sorties over Israel and Jordan.
Supported by three KC-707s and a G-550 Eitan, more than 40 fighter jets including F-35I Adirs performed CAP missions to protect Israel from any possible retaliatory attack of the IRGCASF using cruise missiles and OWA drones during and after Operation Days of Repentance. In addition, at-least eight F-15E Strike Eagles of the USAF, flown from Muwaffaq Al-Salti AB in Jordan, and eight F-16CM Block 40s of the USAF’s 510th FS, flown from Prince Sultan AB in Saudi Arabia, supported by KC-135R/T tankers, performed CAP missions over Jordan and Israel to counter any possible cruise and OWA drone strikes of the IRGCASF in the early hours of October 26.
According to the IDF, Days of Repentance ended with all the aircraft landing in Israel at 0600hrs on October 26, 2024, meaning the CAP sorties had lasted until at-least 0530hrs.
Targeting nuclear sites
Several days before the IASF carried out Operation Days of Repentance, the US government issued a warning to Israel, prohibiting them from conducting any attacks on Iranian nuclear sites. The key reason was to avoid escalation of the conflict, as it could have provided an excuse for the IRGCASF to carry out a similar attack on the Israeli Shimon-Perez nuclear research center in the Negev desert. Despite the warnings, the IASF targeted two sites related to Iran’s nuclear programs. The first was the tunnel entrance of an underground test site for nuclear explosions at Parchin, east of Tehran, and the other was a secret lab in the Taleghan 2 nuclear research facility.
