Israel expands key air base

TEL AVIV, Israel, June 16 (UPI) -- The Israeli air force has expanded its strategic air base at Nevatim in the Negev Desert, part of a plan to relocate the nation's main air bases away from the population centers of the Jewish state's narrow central zone that is considered a prime target for Iranian ballistic missiles.

Work on extending the base with a third runway began in 2004 and is believed to have been completed in May. At a length of 12,500 feet, the new runway, costing an estimated $400 million, is believed to be the longest in the Middle East. That would make it a possible takeoff point for a long-range air assault on Iran.

Nevatim, some 15 miles east of the biblical city of Beersheba, is in the process of becoming a massive complex that will also accommodate the Israeli air force's entire fleet of tanker and transport aircraft.

Any sustained air assault on Iran would require in-air refueling for the strike aircraft that would consist of Boeing F-15Is and Lockheed F-16Is, long-range attack aircraft specifically adapted to Israeli requirements that have long focused on hitting Iran.

Nevatim is the base for the Israeli air force's 28th Wing, which includes Squadrons 116 and 140 equipped with 40-50 F-16A/B aircraft. The new runway means that the air force can relocate its entire transport fleet, including 17C cargo jets and KC-130 tankers, eight Boeing KC-707 tankers and five Gulfstream airborne early warning aircraft at the base, which was inaugurated in 1983.

Israeli officials were at pains to insist that the Nevatim expansion wasn't intended to facilitate an aerial offensive against Iran. But the operational upgrading of such a key air base clearly has implications for just such an eventuality.

On top of the air force personnel who will be based at Nevatim, the Military Intelligence Corps and Teleprocessing units will be among other service units deployed there. Several operational centers, with unspecified missions, will also be housed at the base.

Other key air bases are Hatzerim, southeast of Nevatim in the Negev, south of Israel's central urban sprawl; Ramon, just north of the West Bank; Ramat David in the Galilee in northern Israel; and Tel Nof near the central city of Rehovot. Tel Nof is a former British Royal Air Force base in Mandate Palestine that lies within the heavily populated central waist of Israel between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Tel Nof's air wing includes the 69th Squadron with F15Is. Many of Israel's nuclear weapons are believed to be stored in underground bunkers in or around Tel Nof, where aircraft capable of delivering these weapons have been on 24-hour alert for the last three decades.

There has been much speculation in recent months that Israel was prepared to launch an air and missile attack on Iran's nuclear facilities because the Jewish state views the Islamic Republic's nuclear and missile programs as an existential threat. That isn't a view shared by the United States.

The Americans have reportedly pressed Israel not to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iran on their own, and that pressure has increased since President Barack Obama has put out feelers to Tehran for a diplomatic dialogue to discuss the nuclear issue.