Israeli fighter jets disguised as US aircraft to attack Syria?

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

"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), commentedTel 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-sized smart bombs (SDBs), in addition to Delilah long-range cruise missiles in the attack. This type of weapon has a maximum range of only 100 km when dropped from high altitude. That 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 the Russian and Syrian air defense systems. This "disguised" Israeli fighter squadron then flew over Jordan and Iraq to carry out a lightning attack 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 identification codes will not raise suspicions with Russian and Syrian air defense radars. This may explain why Israeli aircraft with the IFF code of US fighters can freely penetrate Syrian airspace and attack the 47th Brigade's targets.

However, some people question this hypothesis. If the F-15I was disguised as an F-15E fighter, Israel would need permission and support from the US, Iraq and Jordan to avoid confusion. This is especially important when US troops are always on alert, constantly receiving information from early warning systems and electronic warfare 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 dispute 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 completely attack the target from the Lebanon-Syria border, similar to previous airstrikes, or cross Turkish airspace for a short time to carry out the airstrikes.