It is about 08:00am, local time. A Bermuda registered Gulfstream G550, touches down at Washington’s Dulles Airport. It is given clearance to taxi to the Signature Flight Support ramp.
Two black specially modified and armored Chevrolet Suburban SUVs with four Secret Service agents are waiting on the ramp as the jet taxis in. Only two of the agents wait outside for the passengers of the Gulfstream.
Outside the gate of the Signature Fixed Base Operations are two more non-descript Chevrolet Suburban SUVs with Israeli Embassy security (Mossad) officials waiting to follow the two black Chevrolet Suburban trucks. Four passengers disembark from the G550 and proceed toward the vehicles. They are dressed in business suits to appear as business jet passengers. Formalities are waived as two passengers enter each of the vehicles and leave immediately. The ride to the Pentagon takes about thirty minutes and the passengers are led to the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
US Army Chief of Staff General Henry Williamson, USAF Chief of Staff General Jonathan Taylor, US Navy Chief of Staff Admiral Benson Rogers and Vice Admiral Henry Delker are waiting for the Israeli Colonel and his team to arrive. In General Luther Franklin’s office there is much speculation about the Israelis’ rescue plan. The Joint Chiefs have been given their orders from the President. When Colonel Raymond arrives; he is introduced to the Joint Chiefs and immediately gets down to business. Everyone is anxious to hear what the Israelis plans are and how they can help.
“General Franklin, my mission is to brief you and your Joint Chiefs about our plans to rescue our engineers that we believe are being held at the Iranian nuclear facility at Natanz. I am also here to ask for your assistance to help us execute our rescue plans and destroy the nuclear facilities at Natanz, Qom, Isfahan, Darkhovin and Arak.
Colonel Raymond and his officers lay out the detailed plans for the rescue and ask if there are any questions. At the end of the briefing, Colonel Raymond advises that two of his officers will remain in Washington to help coordinate the preparations for the Israelis’ plan. Colonel Raymond and his aid are taken back to the Dulles Airport and depart for Tel Aviv, immediately.
“Gentlemen, what we have here is an opportunity to eliminate the Iranian nuclear threat that holds the Middle East oil supplies and the nation of Israel hostage. I want contingency plans on my desk in twenty-four hours. You heard what the Colonel needs, now, let’s get to work and eliminate this problem once and for all,” orders General Franklin. “I will give the President an overview of what the Israelis will need.”
General Williamson contacts Lt. General John Matthews, commander of the US Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He orders General Matthews to prepare a plan to deploy the “B” Squadron of the Delta Forces to Iraq to assist in the Israeli rescue effort. He gives the General the short version of the Israeli plan and advises him that the two Israeli commandos, whom Colonel Raymond left in Washington, will accompany the “B” Squadron during the operation. General Matthews has already developed a plan that needs little modification to accommodate the Israelis’ request. He tells General Williamson that he will fly to Washington tomorrow to brief him and General Franklin on the role that the Delta Forces will probably play in this rescue.
General Taylor returns to his office and places calls to Lieutenant General James Renson, Commander of the Air Force Global Strike Command at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana and to General Martin Young, Commander of Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. He informs them of the Israelis rescue plan. General Taylor orders Lt. General Renson’s 610th B-2 Bomber Wing under the command of Brigadier General Van Kepler at Whiteman Air Force base in Missouri to be ready to destroy the air defenses at Natanz and the Fordo/Qom facilities. He knows that General Renson has already prepared an attack plan for the Natanz and Fordo nuclear enrichment facilities using the giant bunker buster: the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP).
General Taylor tells General Renson to have those plans and those B-2A Spirit bombers standing by for the President’s orders. General Taylor also orders General Renson to deploy a B-52H from the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale to RAF Mildenhall in the UK.
General Young will come to the Pentagon to meet with the other commanders at General Franklin’s office tomorrow. He has already given the orders to deploy twelve F-22A fighters from the 28th Fighter Squadron and its rapid deployment support unit from the 1st Fighter Wing. The F-22A “Raptor” fighters should be touching down at RAF Mildenhall later this morning.
General Taylor wants the 28th Fighter Squadron to attack the Tabriz Air Base, Vahdati Air Base, Omidiyeh Air Base, Shahrokhi Air Base, Khatami Air Base, Mehrabad Air Base and Doshan-Tappeh Air Base: the Imperial Iranian Air Force Headquarters. The staffs at the 523rd
Air Base Wing have been working on plans to support an attack on Natanz and the other nuclear facilities since the Iranians started threatening Israel.
General Taylor makes another call to General Ray Wilson of the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), 1st Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field in Florida. He gives General Wilson a short version of the Israeli rescue plan and what they need from the AFSOC.
“Ray, I need you to prepare for the deployment of five aircraft from the 23rd Special Operations Squadron of CV-22B Ospreys and one MC-130P “Combat Shadow” from the 77th Special Operations Squadron to RAF Mildenhall, UK as soon as possible. They will wait there for further instructions. We are going to need them in Iraq to extract the Israeli Special Forces and the captive engineers from Natanz. Your aircraft and men will meet up with the Delta Force’s “B” Squadron at Joint Base Balad, Iraq,” says General Taylor.
General Wilson advises his boss that he and the 23th Squadron Commander Lt. Colonel Rick Erikson will fly to Washington to discuss the AFSOC’s role in the Israeli rescue.
Next, General Taylor contacts Colonel David White, Commander of the 48th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron at Joint Base Balad to have one of his MQ-9 Reaper UAV to fly over to Natanz and report what it sees. General Taylor wants to get as much information about the route to and from Natanz.
1400Z: Hurlburt Field, Florida
In a hanger at Hurlburt Field in the panhandle of Florida, a specially modified Russian Antonov An-74TK-200 has just completed being painted in the colors of a fictitious East African air cargo airline, Kalean Airways. This transport aircraft is a Short Take-Off and Landing (STOL) aircraft with a rear ramp that can open in flight to insert Special Operations HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) paratroop commandos into hostile territory. It has been fitted with the newer; more fuel efficient ZMKB Progress D-436T1 version turbo fan engines that come on the new AN-74TK-300. These engines are uniquely mounted over the wing to utilize the engine’s exhaust to increase lift and avoid foreign object debris on unimproved runway surfaces.
QX, Incorporated, a private security contractor’s pilots will fly the Antonov to their forward operating base at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya. From Nairobi, they will flight plan a “commercial cargo flight” to Tbilisi, Georgia with the Israeli commandos secretly on board. One of the crew is a Russian speaking pilot that will handle the Air Traffic Control communications for this mission. The aircraft will depart Hurlburt Field tomorrow morning at 0600 and fly to Barbados in the Caribbean, refuel and continue to Recife, Brazil. It should arrive at about 2000 local time and remain there overnight. The next evening at approximately 2100, it will make the Atlantic Ocean crossing to the West African nation of Ghana and arrive in the morning at about 0600. It will refuel there for the flight to Nairobi.
The Special Operations Command has been using this platform for a few years to infiltrate Special Operations Forces into hostile countries. Since it is a Russian aircraft, it is especially useful in the African, Middle East and Southwest Asian theaters. If all goes well the aircraft should arrive in Nairobi about 1800Z, three days from now.