CNN correspondent Nic Robertson received special permission to board a refueling aircraft that was part of Israel's strike mission in Yemen on Sunday. These are some of his impressions about the unique experience:
"Aboard an aging Boeing 707, thousands of feet above the Red Sea, I don a set of high-tech 3D goggles and stare at the small TV monitor recessed in a bank of retro dials and switches," he said.
"Saudi Arabia’s amber desert slides by to my right, Egypt’s coast to my left, and then a monstrous F35 fighter jet fills the tiny screen. I am with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) – the first foreign journalist to be taken on a combat mission more than a thousand miles from Israel aboard a fighter jet refuel tanker," he continued.
"Israel’s invitation to join this mission came with no detail about the plane’s destination. As I climb the plane’s rickety steps, I have no idea where I am going or what this IDF flight will reveal about military operations."
"Israeli Air Force security regulations are so tight neither I nor Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, the IDF spokesman accompanying me, are allowed to bring our cellphones aboard. Neither am I allowed to bring a camera or photojournalist."
"Except for the cockpit, I have access to the more than 50-year-old former commercial airliner, and its commanders, under the condition that they not be named. Flying 1,200 miles (1,500 kilometers), the refueling mission I discover I am joining is the IDF’s longest-range combat mission since a 1985 raid on Tunis," Robertson said.
"For more than an hour and a half, Israeli F35 fighter jets, each worth more than $100 million, close in behind the 707 tanker, nudging toward its trailing fuel pipe. The squadron commander, a 15-year refueling veteran, stares through his 3D goggles, merging two camera images. He jockeys the two long levers beside his seat and steers the nozzle toward the gas-hungry fighter jet’s fuel port."
Footage of the refueling planes on the way to the attack in Yemen
(Video: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
"When he shows me a map of the mission, I realize we are on the way to Hodeidah Port in Yemen, controlled by Houthi rebels, backed by Iran. Shoshani tells me the reason for this mission, is that over the past two weeks, the Houthis have fired three long-range missiles, all intercepted near Tel Aviv."
"As the last of the F35s decouple from the fuel feed, the squadron commander visibly eases in his seat, pushes back his goggles, and stretches his shoulders. Each jet is on the nozzle for about 3 minutes, requiring intense focus," he continued.
"We begin circling, waiting for fighter pilots to deliver their payloads. Any attack from the ground could cost them vital fuel as they try to evade being shot down and require a refill to get back to base."
"Twenty minutes later we’re headed north, no top-ups needed. I ask the lead pilot on the tanker, a reservist veteran aviator, about the challenges of such a mission and his feelings when civilians are killed. 'We don’t want to kill civilians, he tells me, and we use all the intelligence we have to avoid it.'"
"On the flight, Shoshani told me the message was for Iran too, a warning that while Israel is bracing for retaliatory strikes from Hezbollah in Lebanon, they want the group’s sponsor, Iran, to stay out of the fight," he concluded.