 In the 1982 Lebanon War, Israeli F-15s were credited with 41 Syrian aircraft destroyed (23 MiG-21s and 17 MiG-23s, and one Aérospatiale SA.342L Gazelle helicopter).During Operation Mole Cricket 19, Israeli F-15s and F-16s together shot down 82 Syrian fighter aircraft (MiG-21s, MiG-23s, and MiG-23Ms) with no losses.Israel was the only operator to use and develop the air-to-ground abilities of the air-superiority F-15 variants, doing so because the fighter's range was well beyond other combat aircraft in the Israeli inventory in the 1980s.