Did Israel Just Try to Nuke Iran?
Pepe Escobar has his sources. I have Issac Newton.
On April 20th, Journalist Pepe Escobar claimed that an Israeli F-35 loaded with a nuclear weapon was shot down over Jorden by Russia. The intent was to detonate an EMP or Electromagnetic pulse weapon over Iran. I don't believe this happened.
The original tweet is here: https://x.com/RealPepeEscobar/status/1781652011173253524
There are four reasons why I don’t believe this is correct:
#1. If Russia had shot down an F-35 they would let everyone in the world know. This is a major American platform, Russia would want to let everybody know that they destroyed one.
#2. There is no tactical reason to do this, especially since it would turn the world against Israel.
#3. An F-35 is an $80 million dollar plane. Israel only has 36 of them. They would notice if one went missing. If anything, the contractors from Lockheed Martin would noticed that there was one less plane to service.
#4. In order to "lob" a bomb into near-space where an EMP could be effective (roughly 19 miles / 30 km). This would mean an F-35 would have to fly at 90 degrees at full afterburner (1.6 Mach), until 50,000 feet (F-35 max ceiling), toss the bomb and then escape. This would throw the weapon roughly 30,661 feet or 18.9 miles into the sky, which is just under what you would need to make an EMP weapon effective. I believe that this is highly unlikely.
I think if Israel actually tried, they would succeed.
So many useful idiots, so little time. EMPs can only be triggered by high altitude nuclear detonations. You can't use a bomb to do this. It has to be a missile.
If, and that's a big IF, someone wanted to do this, they would use a ballistic missile. There's no reason to deploy an aircraft. and if they did, they would still have to use a missile.
My first sentence is referring to Pepe Escobar, not fellow commenters.