Giclee on Canvas: signed and numbered by artist, limited to 198 available
Size: (image) 20"X30"
Limited Edition on Canvas: $385 + S&H $14 U.S. / $45 International
Artist's Proofs: signed by the artist- limited to fifty available
Overall Size: 26.5"X39"
Image: 20.5" X 31"
Type: high-quality offset lithographs on 100lb Lustro Dull Cover
Artist's Proof: $200 + S&H $14 U.S. / $45 International
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OPERATION BABYLON
The Israeli Air Force Raid on the Osiraq Nuclear Reactor
At sundown, on Sunday, June 7, 1981, the Israeli Air Force destroyed the nuclear breeder reactor at al-Tuwaitha, Iraq. The reactor was designed to produce nuclear weapons for Saddam Hussein, the bellicose dictator of Iraq, who had made no secret of the fact that he intended to use these weapons to destroy the state of Israel. The raid was conceived in absolute secrecy and brilliantly executed by eight highly trained pilots in the strike package flying F-16A "Netz" attack fighters, modified by Israeli engineers for long-range attack, and by another eight F-15 fighter pilots who executed top-cover and communications during the raid.
The two F-16 Netz aircraft seen in the painting were the last two over the target, which was attacked by four pairs of F-16s in trail. Both pilots, "Relik" Shafir (foreground aircraft) and his wingman, Ilan Ramon, seen behind Shafir, emerged from a furious cauldron of antiaircraft ordinance put up by the Iraqi defenses unscathed, as did the six pilots that preceded them. All of the aircraft returned safely to Israel, following the mission. Ilan Ramon, who subsequently became Israel's first astronaut, was later to die tragically in the American space shuttle explosion over Texas in 2003. |
