22. A Daring Option
Israeli pilots prepared for the raid by studying the Iraqi nuclear power plant’s plans, paying special attention to the reactor building that housed the nuclear core. The most obvious route would have been a straight line from Israel to Baghdad and the reactor. However, that would have crossed Jordan, whose radar stations would have detected airplanes approaching from the west. Taking a long curved route farther to the south was another possibility, but American AWACS planes operating from Saudi Arabia could have detected unusual aerial activity.
A third and more daring alternative, which was followed, was to fly low, under the radar, while weaving a path between Jordanian and Saudi radar installations. On June 7th, 1981, a flight of Israeli warplanes, comprised of bomb-carrying F-16s, escorted by F-15s for fighter protection, took off for the Osirak reactor.