5,000 Air Force strikes in the last 5 years

IAF releases data on the 'war between the wars' to prevent Iran's military entrenchment in Syria, transfer of weapons to terrorists.

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) presented Thursday, 11 August, the data of the "battle between the wars," which is intended to weaken the enemies of the State of Israel and stop the transfer of weapons to terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah, without dragging Israel into a new war.

According the sourses (1, 2, 3) reported that there has been a jump of hundreds of percent in the scope of the Israeli Air Force's covert operations against the build-up of enemy forces in Syria as well as the transfer of advanced weapons.

In the last five years, about 5,000 rounds of munitions of various kinds have been fired as part of the "battle between the wars campaign, in which the IDF has destroyed advanced and new weapons, as well as arms shipments that would be used operate Israel in the next war.

Most of the operations have taken place in the northern arena, primarily in Syria, where Iran has attempted in recent years to entrench itself militarily and to transfer weapons to its underlings in Hezbollah. The firepower used in the last five years is equal to the firepower which would be used in a period of between two weeks and one month in a real war.

So, the statistic include:

• Over the past 5 years (that is, since 2015), the Air Force has used about 5,000 of aviation munitions "at all theaters". Most of them in last three years (from 2017 to 2020), during this three year about 955 targets were attacked, on which 4,239 bombs and missiles were used, dozens of this munitions dropped by F-35I aircraft.

• Since 2017, Syria has fired 873 anti-aircraft missiles, from them about 844 in the last 3 years, i.e. since mid-2017, mainly missiles of the SA-17 (Buk-M2E) and SA-22 (Pantsir-S1) complexes; for comparison - in 2013 - only 2 missiles;

• Over the past two years, the Israeli Air Force has destroyed a third of Syria’s advanced air defense systems, according to IAF assessments.

• The number of surgeries has skyrocketed over the past year, despite the coronavirus epidemic;

• 70% of the pilots who participated in these operations are reservists.