Earlier this month, Israeli fighters bombed a suspectednuclear materials site in Syria. Here's the million dollar question: How did they do it without tipping off Syria's Russian-bought air defense radar? Radar expert Dave Fulghum over atAviation Week's Ares blog may have the answer: Israel hacked the network.

U.S. aerospace industry and retired military officials indicated today that a technology like the U.S.-developed “Suter” airborne network attack system developed by BAE Systems and integrated into U.S. unmanned aircraft by L-3 Communications was used by the Israelis. The system has been used or at least tested operationally in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last year.

*The technology allows users to invade communications networks, see what enemy sensors see and even take over as systems administrator so sensors can be manipulated into positions so that approaching aircraft can’t be seen, they say. The process involves locating enemy emitters with great precision and then directing data streams into them that can include false targets and misleading messages algorithms that allow a number of activities including control. *

Whether this is the final explanation is unclear, but as Fulghum notes, there's a bunch of Russian radar engineers studying the strike right now.