© Dmitriy Vinogradov / SputnikAn S-400 air defence missile system is deployed for a combat duty at the Hmeymim airbase to provide security of the Russian air group's flights in Syria.
A spokesperson of the Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) told Sputnik on Friday that the absence of anti-IS coalition airstrikes "has nothing to do with the S400 deployment" in Syria.
Comment: Of course the US doesn't want to admit the S-400 system is a deterrent.
"The fluctuation or absence of strikes in Syria reflects the ebb and flow of battle," the spokesperson said, adding that CJTF-OIR deliver airstrikes when and where it needs to, dedicating a lot of time to researching targets to ensure maximum effect and minimizing civilian casualties.
As CJTF-OIR reported on Friday, the US-led coalition had made no sorties against targets in Syria since Thursday, while airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq continued, with the coalition making 18 strikes on terrorist positions.
On November 24, a Turkish F-16 fighter jet shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber, which had been bombing IS positions. Moscow says the bomber was in Syrian airspace which the F-16 violated, while Turkey claims the Russian jet crossed the Turkish border and was repeatedly warned before the attack.
Both the pilot and the navigator of the Su-24 ejected. The pilot was killed by a militant group while parachuting to the ground, while the rescue operation for the Russian navigator was successful to a certain extent: a Marine died providing covering fire in the rescue team drop zone and a helicopter was lost after it was hit with an American-made anti-tank TOW missile the terrorists are armed with.
After the incident, Russia's Joint Staff took the decision to enhance air defenses at the Khmeimim airbase south of the Syrian port of Latakia.
The following day, on November 25, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced the immediate deployment of S-400 misslies to Syria.
S-400 Triumph system missile launchers were airlifted to Syria by Antonov An-124 Ruslan super-jumbo aircraft 24 hours after the decision was announced on Wednesday.
According to open sources, the S-400 is capable of shooting down any existing aircraft, helicopter or missile traveling at speeds of up to 4.8 kilometer per second (over 17,000 km/h) The only target the system would have problems with is a nuclear warhead of intercontinental ballistic missile, which flies at speeds of up to 6-7 kilometer per second.
The S-400 engages targets at distances as far as 400 kilometers and heights of up to 27 kilometers (or higher with newer missiles). This is enough to cover at least 75 percent of Syrian territory, along with the airspaces of Lebanon, Cyprus, half of Israel and a vast part of Turkey.
© Google Maps
S-400 radar covers Syria, western regions of Iraq and Saudi Arabia, nearly all of Israel and Jordan, Egypt's northern Sinai, a large part of the eastern Mediterranean and Turkish airspace as far as the capital Ankara.
Reader Comments
both Russia and US are playing their parts to distract us all. sott is also a part of controlled opposition, no matter if they know it or not.
Yes, we know - it's the weather.
and think this entire operation is long range plan; part of the 'economic recovery' which of course is needed because of 'austerity' which is controlled collapse which was necessary as capitalism had run its course and needed to be reset.
More analysis: Perhaps the US planned to do what Russia is doing only they got the jump on us. It would have been much more profitable to draw this out for another year of extensive bombing inclusive of boots on the ground but the bomb went off in France now instead of here a year from now, so the end is the same: the triangle from the borders of Iraq, Turkey, and the Euphrates are going to be the new Kurdistan. That makes everybody happy except the US which planned to run the artificial stock market up to 3400 over arms and munitions sales and at the same time reinvigorating its military presence world-wide. And Israel who was counting on its complicit silence over the 3 million Jewish vanished from N Africa one supposes was the business community replaced with EU deals to be included in the land grab being dealt the Golan Heights.
I could be wrong. But Russian would have to be playing from a very strong hand to continue and push to the borders of Turkey and Iraq. But that might just be the cost to Turkey of one Russian pilot shot while parachuting to safety.