Israeli fighter jets disguised as US aircraft to attack Syria?

On April 29, an airstrike killed 16 people, including 11 Iranians, at the base of Brigade 47, a unit composed mainly of Iranian soldiers and the Tehran-backed Hezbollah militia fighting near Hama, Syria.

"Given the nature of the target, this is likely an Israeli attack,"Mr. Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), commented.Tel Aviv denied attacking the 47th Brigade base, but three unnamed US officials confirmed in early May that Israeli F-15I squadrons participated in the airstrike, according toDrive.

The Israeli fighters appear to have used GBU-39B small-caliber smart bombs (SDBs), along with Delilah long-range cruise missiles, in the attack. These weapons have a maximum range of only 100 km when dropped from high altitudes. This forced the F-15Is to penetrate deep into Syrian airspace and likely appear continuously on the country's radar system.

It is unclear how the Israeli pilots managed to approach their targets without encountering a response from Russian and Syrian air defense systems. Unlike previous airstrikes, Damascus did not claim to have shot down Tel Aviv's missiles, nor was there any video of Syrian missiles intercepting targets at night.

Some military experts hypothesize that the Israeli F-15I fighter jets used the Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) signals of the US F-15E aircraft, as well as set call signs similar to those of the US Air Force to bypass Russian and Syrian air defense systems. This "disguised" Israeli fighter squadron then flew over Jordan and Iraq to carry out a lightning strike on the 47th Brigade base in northwestern Syria.

The US Air Force regularly conducts operations in support of special forces and Kurdish forces in eastern Syria. The appearance of US F-15Es with familiar friend-foe identification codes would not raise suspicions with Russian and Syrian air defense radars. This could explain why Israeli aircraft with the US fighter IFF codes were able to freely penetrate Syrian airspace and attack the 47th Brigade's targets.

However, some people question this theory. If the F-15I was disguised as an F-15E, Israel would need permission and support from the US, Iraq and Jordan to avoid confusion. This is especially important when US troops are on alert, constantly receiving information from early warning and electronic warfare systems in eastern Syria.

Even if Washington and Tel Aviv are close allies, the US may not be able to convince the other two Middle Eastern countries, Iraq and Jordan, to accept the operation of the “disguised” F-15I squadron. Jordan has just ended a serious diplomatic row with Israel following the murder of two of its citizens outside the Israeli embassy in 2017, so bilateral relations may not have recovered to the point where F-15Is would be allowed to secretly fly over Jordanian airspace.

Iraq maintains diplomatic and military ties with Russia, Iran and Syria, making it even more difficult for it to agree to an Israeli airstrike. Baghdad could have passed information about the operation to Damascus, allowing it to prepare forces to intercept Israeli fighters.

These obstacles make the F-15I fighter jet disguised as an American aircraft difficult to apply in practice. Tel Aviv could have attacked the target from the Lebanon-Syria border, similar to previous air strikes, or crossed Turkish airspace for a short time to carry out the strike.