Rooster-53 Operation

Israeli Air Force and Rooster-53 Operation

Israeli Air Force and the aerial photos:

The main hero of the operation was Rami Shalev, who later became General Manager of Coca-Cola Company, the time of the operation was one of the five who analyzed the aerial photos in the Israeli Air Force's technical services unit.

"In the fall of 1969, we were surprised by a difficult puzzle to solve. Israel was bombing the Egyptian radar station in the region (Ras Gharib) time and time again, and we were recording injuries and losses, but the station was continuing to broadcast its services over time, leading to continuous damage to our forces ’operations, for a period of 3 months this strange matter continued." Shalev says

December 22nd, on Monday morning, after we finished a 24-hour work of examining and analyzing the aerial photos of the Suez Canal, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, I was very tired, I started examining the images of the marginal and sub-sector of the Gulf of Suez, and I found two small points around the Bedouin tents, which were They are located on a mountain in the area (Ras Gharib), 5 kilometers from the radar that was bombed by Israel.

I used the sixth sense that told me that this is what we are looking for. The radar was hidden in a rare and exceptional way, not protected by an Egyptian defense unit or artillery or residential buildings. All the intelligence units said that the talk was about tents for the Bedouins, but my military commander, Yehiel Hiller was convinced, in my opinion, that this was the radar station we were looking for, and he wanted to be bombed, but I suggested that we take over the latter. For a week, I was terrified not to be the real target, but rather Bedouin tents.

The newspaper quoted a former Air Force intelligence that took part in the operation, saying: "One of the military commanders called Yehiel Hiller came to me, with aerial photos, and informed me of the discovery of the real radar station. I summoned at the time Dodd Afri, the head of the Operations Authority with the weapon."

It quoted Afri as saying: "After examining the photos, I summoned two pilots, namely, Eliezer Kahan and Kochav Hess, and we discussed the issue of capturing the radar."

On the following Friday evening, 3 helicopters flew over 66 Israeli fighters, including paratroopers, prisoner interrogators, a doctor, electronic technicians, and one journalist, from the Abu Roudis area of Ras Ghareb. Despite all the preparations, the Egyptians observed the penetration of Israeli helicopters and raised the state of alert, but they did not discover that Israel knew the location of the real radar.

One of the participants in the operation said: "Our military strength reached a crawl of the target, the Egyptian guard was calm, the Kalashnikov was lowered from his shoulders and entered in a state of readiness, I saw our men praying to the radar, the guard ran and shouted."

when the paratroops had taken apart the radar station and prepared the various parts for the CH-53s, the two helicopters were called in from across the Red Sea. One CH-53 carried the communications caravan and the radar antenna, while the other CH-53 took the heavier, 4-ton radar itself. The two helicopters made their way back across the Red Sea to Israeli controlled territory.

Egyptian P-12 radar at the Israeli Air Force

The newspaper said that "the process of controlling the radar took 25 minutes, and its dismantling lasted about an hour. Our men linked the radar to the helicopters. There were fears that the Egyptians would use anti-aircraft weapons.

The former Israeli president reported the operation in a book that he said, "Obtaining Russian-style radar of this kind was important for Israelis and Western superpowers in the field of electronic warfare."