Military analyst on Fox News asks "Why doesn't Israel have F16s...

[Junkdrawer]

circling southern Lebanon to take out Hezbollah launch sites in real time?"

I mean, the launch is captured on video and if Israel had immediately pounded the launch site, no one would have credibly blamed Israel even if the site was a civilian neighborhood. And they would have destroyed six launchers.

[A HERETIC I AM]

1. F-16's have a limited fuel capacity. They can't just fly in circles for

hours and hours and if they did, the guys with the missiles could easily just hold their fire till the circling planes left to refuel. Even Aerial refueling takes time and requires straight-line flight. I'm not even sure whether Israel has any air tankers anyway.

You don't shoot while you're being looked at. You shoot when noone is looking.

on edit to say i know about drop-tanks and the like but cirlcling above just doesnt seem to be the way to go. Now...if they had a Global-hawk.....


hell....they might have a few of those already

[wakeme2008]

2. funny that a Fox military analysis would not think of that nt

[Junkdrawer]

3. They have a whole Air Force...hell, they sell AWACs to China...

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D06E3D9133EF930A25757C0A9669C8B63

[MercutioATC]

4. Israel has a new UAV...it's called the Eitan.

http://www.defense-update.com/products/e/eitan-UAV.htm

Brand new technology.


...that's in addition to the Heron, Ranger, Searcher and Hunter UAVs already produced by Israel Aircraft Industries.

http://www.iai.co.il/Templates/Product/Search.aspx?lang=EN&ProductType=0&BusinessArea=18892&ProductLine=0

[Selatius]

5. They use UAVs, not F16s

F16s eat up tremendous amounts of fuel, especially if they're carrying a full bomb load. They cannot keep their warplanes in the air like that. Warplanes are built to engage other warplanes in combat or to hit targets, not loiter.

[TomClash]

6. They're mobile

mounted on trucks. Pretty hard to hit.