Photographic evidence: Hezbollah/IRGC Make Use of US Military Radio Hardware
*by Sean Osborne, Associate Director, Senior Analyst, Military Affairs
27 October 2006:This is a re-issue of a report posted earlier today. New information and details emerged almost immediately after the initial web publication of that report.
The Northeast Intelligence Network recently acquired images which were taken by the IDF following its capture of a significant enemy Command and Control (C2) facility in the Lebanese village of Meiss al-Jabal, Lebanon on 10 August, 2006.
This enemy C2 facility was providing real-time Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, referred to in the US military by the acronym C4ISR. The major component radio communications equipment was composed of five individual pieces of formerly frontline US military communication hardware.
These images may go a long way in shedding some light on a report dated September 18, 2006 by Newsday.com
Newsday reported that Hezbollah, with critical Iranian support, had been provided the means of intercepting and compromising the security of Israeli military communications. The Iranian involvement in this effort remains a bottom line assessment of this report.Here are the IDF images with Hebrew to English translations provided by Aharon Etengoff, Editor, WeaponSurvey.com
1. Mobile observation stands, attached to batteries, located in a house in the village of Meiss al-Jabal.
2. Hezballah signal intercept station used to monitor and record IDF communications.
3. Real-time analysis center monitoring strategic vantage points.
4. Hezbollah aerial map of the northern border with marked IDF positions (or deployment of IDF forces).
Based upon my analysis of these images, the comments of active duty US military men who have viewed these images, as well as the Hebrew language captioning the following assessment is made:
1. The location of this building must have had a high level of physical security or internal compartmentalization due to the nature of the highly classified, real-time intelligence production going in inside. Some Hezbollah soldiers probably knew of the buildings function but had never stepped inside.
2. This building was very likely occupied and operated by the elite of the signals intelligence and communications intelligence (SIGINT, COMINT) of the Iranian military C4ISR community. The highly trained intelligence personnel and equipment operators required to run such a facility indicates with a relatively high degree of probability that they were trained in Iran and were in fact Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps troops.
3. The critical element of everything seen in these images are the radio communications hardware seen in image #2. These are the two gray-colored and one olive drab VRC-12 components seen on the top of the desk. They are specifically known by the nomenclature “R-422 Auxilliary Recievers”. The other two radios directly below them are either the U.S.AN/PRC-77 or the Finnish (Nokia) LV-217 VHF FM transceivers. Close inspection of the front panels on these radios suggests they have had integral electronic modifications made to them. In addition there are a variety of small modular devices which are attached via cabling, the specific function of which remain unknown.
4. An obvious Israeli and allied intelligence bonanza lies in the capture of these devices. This is a wholesale compromise of Iranian/IRGC military communications which heretofore is not known to have occurred, and has an unquestionably urgent exploitation factor assigned to it by Israeli and allied intelligence agencies. Contrary to media reporting, it is my opinion that these images and the intelligence they provide reflect the single most important technological achievement of the war between Hezbollah/Iran and Israel.