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The pilots of eight F-16 strike aircraft and six F-15 fighters begin their pre-flight checks. The gauges on two of the F-16s show minor fuel system errors, but their pilots do not report these faults; they have no intention of missing out on the mission ahead. The F-16s, named the Nets by the Israeli Air Force, start their take-off at 3:55 pm on the 7th of June 1981 at Etzion Air Base near the tourist town of Eilat in southern Sinai. They are heavily laden with fuel tanks, Sidewinder missiles, and two-thousand-pound bombs and must use the entire length of the runway to lift off. The F-15s follow closely behind while the F-16s form up on their flight leader, Colonel Zeev Raz. Raz leads the formation of aircraft over the beaches of the Red Sea, where tourists spot them and assume the Israeli Air Force is conducting a training exercise. In fact, these pilots are on their way to carry out a mission which they have been told will determine the fate of their nation.
This is Operation Opera, a last-resort military strike by Israel's air force to destroy Saddam Hussein's nuclear programme. Almost six years earlier, in November of 1976, Hussein's Iraqi government reached a nuclear cooperation agreement with the French government and purchased an Osiris-class nuclear reactor along with enriched uranium. Construction on the reactor sites began in 1979 at the Al-Tuwaitha nuclear center south of Baghdad. Despite public assurances from the French that the Iraqi nuclear programme is for research purposes only, the Israeli government led by Prime Minister Menachem Begin is alarmed. Israel perceives Iraq as a hostile Arab neighbor who has attacked them in the past, and Prime Minister Begin sees a nuclear-armed Iraq as an existential threat. The Israeli cabinet immediately begins preparations to destroy the Iraqi nuclear program before it can become operational. Several attempts are undertaken to fulfill this task. The French plant constructing the nuclear reactor is sabotaged by Israeli agents in April of 1979, and Mossad assassinates the leader of Iraq's nuclear programme the year after. Yet the reactor still arrives intact at Al-Tuwaitha. With the reactor now in place, the only practical option left is destroying the nuclear plant with an airstrike before it becomes operational. Begin authorizes the beginning of preparations for this eventuality.
As a result of circumstance, the Israeli government finds an unlikely and important partner in this venture. On the 17th of September 1980, Saddam Hussein declares war on the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Iraq launches a full-scale invasion of its eastern neighbor. The Iranian Air Force bombs the unfinished nuclear plant 13 days after the start of the war, but this raid does not cause lasting damage. However, Ayatollah Khamenei's government opens a secret dialogue with Prime Minister Begin, and the two countries trade clandestine information on how to destroy the site. Iranian reconnaissance photos are passed on to the Israelis to help them in their own attempt. In October of 1980, Mossad informs the Israeli government that the plant will be fueled and operational by June of 1981, setting a hard deadline for the need to strike. Later that month, the Israeli cabinet votes to launch the attack. They receive a stroke of luck when the Iranian Air Force launches a surprise assault on Iraqi airfields two months before the planned raid. The assault devastates Saddam Hussein's air capability. The Israeli cabinet believes it is now or never for the attack to be launched before the Iraqi Air Force recovers.
The raiders are not taking a direct flight path to the nuclear facility. Instead, the Israeli formation flies south over the Gulf of Aqaba at wave-top level. By sheer coincidence, King Hussein of Jordan is holidaying on his yacht in the gulf when the Israeli aircraft fly directly over his vessel, so low that the Jordanian king can clearly see the Israeli military markings on the bottom of the F-16s. Jordan is an ally of Iraq, and King Hussein immediately deduces that the formation is on its way to bomb the nuclear plant. He orders his government to warn Saddam Hussein of the impending raid, but the Iraqi government fails to receive the message. Israeli pilots slip into Saudi Arabia undetected before dropping their centerline external fuel tanks over the desert. The aircraft are to fly through Saudi airspace before turning east towards Baghdad. This is a calculated risk, as the longer distance means the F-15s and F-16s will have to carry fuel tanks, which hampers their maneuverability. However, the war with Iran has drawn most Iraqi air defenses away from the western border. During the planning stage of the operation, the Israeli Air Force has also discovered a gap in Iraqi radar coverage along the Saudi Arabian border. The raid must follow this exact path to avoid radar detection. Once at the target, the F-16s will execute the bombing raid while the F-15s will intercept any Iraqi aircraft that rise to challenge them. Before reaching the Iraqi border, the formation descends to just 30 feet above ground level to fly under Iraqi radar defenses. The pilots keep a fixed eye on their instruments, watching for any missile warnings. Yet no such threat materializes, and once the strike group is 50 miles from the target, the F-15s peel off and climb to provide air cover.
At 6:35 pm local time, the nuclear facility is spotted on the horizon, and Lieutenant Colonel Raz leads the F-16s to climb to 6,900 feet, firing off flares and chaff to confuse enemy radar. The Israeli pilots turn on their video tape recorder cameras and arm the Mark 84 two-thousand-pound bombs before diving towards the reactor building at a 35-degree angle. The Israeli Air Force has chosen these bombs for their reliability; they have never failed to explode after undergoing rigorous testing. However, they must hit the target dead center to destroy the reactor, and each aircraft will only have one pass. The ill-trained Iraqi anti-aircraft gunners defending the complex are caught completely by surprise. They fire wildly, even hitting their own positions as they attempt to track the Israeli aircraft. Lieutenant Colonel Raz targets the main reactor building and its massive concrete dome. He releases his munitions at 3,600 feet. The bomb is on a 12-second delay, which allows it to penetrate the concrete shielding before exploding within the reactor. The rest of the F-16s follow in the methodical parade, each hitting the target dead-on at five-second intervals. The last pilot in line, Deputy Squadron Commander Ilan Ramon, drops his bombs before going to afterburner and climbing with the rest of the F-16s. The Iraqis fire several SA-7 SAMs, which chase after the strike aircraft, but none are able to find the target. Ramon later remarks that Operation Opera was not much more complex than training missions. Ramon would eventually join NASA and be among the doomed crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003.
With their task complete and the reactor building in ruins, the Israeli formation climbs to high altitudes and turns for home. As opposed to the careful infiltration of enemy airspace, the strike group uses the shortest route to return to Israel. The Israeli Air Force scrambles its fighters from its own air bases to intercept any trailing Iraqi MiGs, while rescue helicopters stand by to pick up any pilots who are shot down by surface-to-air missiles. However, there is no response from the Iraqi Air Force, and the Israeli aircraft take no damage as they fly back to base. The raid has taken just two minutes, and 14 of the 16 bombs are direct hits on the target. The following day, Prime Minister Begin announces the success of Operation Opera to the Israeli public. Despite its operational success, the Israeli raid on the Al-Tuwaitha nuclear center is highly controversial. Ten Iraqi soldiers and one French civilian contractor are killed in the attack, but radiation exposure at the site is negligible due to the reactor not being fully fueled. The bombing of another country's nuclear programme without a declaration of war prompts a unanimous condemnation from the United Nations Security Council. French officials maintained that the plant would have been incapable of producing a nuclear bomb, and some believe that the raid only intensified Saddam Hussein's desire to acquire weapons of mass destruction. Instead, the furious Iraqi dictator orders the execution of the head of Iraq's Western Air Defense Zone and all officers under his command above the rank of major. During Operation Desert Storm ten years later, coalition aircraft would attempt to go back to Al-Tuwaitha, but the strike would not proceed successfully.