In the shadow of the criticism of the IDF's readiness to attack Iran, it seems that the corps is preparing and preparing for possible scenarios. Refueling on the way to the target, activity in absolute uncertainty, threats that are not received in the systems and the weight on the commanders of the fighter squadrons.
Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Amikam Nurkin, dressed in a flight suit, slowly entered the office of the 201st Squadron Commander known as the "One Squadron", which operates "Storm" aircraft (F16 aircraft) at the Ramon base in the Negev and sat down at the desk.
It seemed at that moment that he was well acquainted with the office and what was going on in it. Nurkin looked at the huge board on the wall. In crowded rows, numbers and small print, the training graph was displayed alongside the activities of the combat squadron.
"Every squadron commander knows exactly what he's doing tomorrow, in a week, in a month and until the end of the year. Planning versus execution," Nurkin said.
The board left no doubt as to the load and sharpness required of corps pilots to pinpoint their work under very strict schedules. On the concept of planning, Major General Nurkin says: "The more accurate and better we plan, the more resources we will find and the more qualified we will be." As if that was not enough to illustrate the accuracy. Next to the big board, there is a black watch with bright red numbers. An hour, minutes and uniform seconds throughout the corps for many years.
"When you set up a meeting or activity it starts just in time for the second one," Nurkin would later say.
Last week, it was first reported in Walla News, that Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi had approved the Air Force's detailed training graph for 2022, in the context of a variety of attack plans in Iran that remain a deep secret.
Despite political backlash, senior defense officials estimate that the "card" Iran holds as a counterweight to the attack is weak, because despite surviving the harsh sanctions of Trump, it still suffers from severe economic problems, a dramatic decline in public legitimacy, and Assad stabilizes the regime.
Loved to say the least Iranian activity in his recovering country, Hezbollah built as a front-line Iranian force preoccupied with the survival of the organization in particular and Lebanon in general, the Iranians now have no nuclear weapons and it will take them at least a year or more to produce a bomb.
Accordingly, sources estimate that the possibilities to apply leverage to the ayatollahs regime have increased. The big question is whether Israel will succeed in convincing the Americans not to fall into the Iranian trap that is delaying the negotiation process and meanwhile intensify the pressure through new and effective sanctions to reach a better agreement and in the same breath prepare for the first Iran war.