In 1983, A U.S. Navy Strike Package Got Bloodied And Humiliated Trying to Bomb Syrian Air Defenses

The Navy failed where the Israeli air force succeeded

U.S. Navy A-6s. USN photo

In the late 1970s and early ’80s, the air forces of Israel and Syria dueled over Lebanon.

With its American-made Boeing F-15 and Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters, Israel had the upper hand over the Soviet-supplied Syrians. It carried out air strikes against its numerous opponents in Lebanon with seeming impunity.

Partially for this reason, the United States was infuriated when its own first air strike targeting the Syrians in Lebanon ended in disaster.

Israel received its first F-15s and F-16s in 1976 and 1980, respectively. An Israeli F-15 shot down a Syrian Mikoyan MiG-21 over Lebanon in 1979. An Israeli F-16 downed a Syrian Mil Mi-8 helicopter over Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley in 1981.

In ensuing dogfights, Israel’s F-15s killed several more MiG-21s. And on two separate occasions in 1981, Israeli F-15s engaged with—and shot down—Syrian Mikoyan MiG-25s capable of Mach 3.

Around that time, Syria assembled an arsenal of Soviet-made surface-to-air missile batteries—SA-2s, SA-3s and SA-6s—in the Bekaa Valley.

Israel invaded Lebanon in June 1982 to remove Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization. The Israelis set about neutralizing the Bekaa SAMs.