 The eight F-16As, each armed with two unguided Mark-84 2,000-pound delay-action bombs, were manned by Ze'ev Raz, Amos Yadlin, Dobbi Yaffe, Hagai Katz, Amir Nachumi, Iftach Spector, Relik Shafir, and Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut.Prior to the 1982 Lebanon War, Syria, with the help of the Soviet Union, had built up an overlapping network of surface-to-air missiles in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley.On June 9, 1982 the Israeli Air Force carried out Operation Mole Cricket 19, crippling the Syrian air defense array.