Following Monday’s announcement that Russia will provide Syria with advanced S-300 air defense systems within the coming weeks, officials now say that the delivery is intended to provide enough such systems to cover all of Syrian airspace.
The early estimates are that this will mean Syria getting up to eight S-300 systems. The substantial range of the systems also means that an S-300 system in Damascus would also provide radar coverage across Lebanon, and northern Israel.
All told, this means that the S-300 systems will provide even more of a counter to the repeated Israeli airstrikes against Syrian territory. The S-300 missiles not only are of a generation meant to pose a real threat to such attackers, but the radar, far superior to the S-200, will give them advanced warning of any incursion, instead of just finding out when the rockets start landing.
Israel has long expressed opposition to Russia providing the S-300 to any of its regional rivals, generally Syria and Iran. The Russian decision to provide the systems to Syria came after an Israeli attack on the Syrian coast, during which a Russian surveillance plane was shot down.
How wonderful of Russia to finally deliver the S-300s that Syria paid for. Meanwhile they are trying to sell the more modern S-400 to Syria’s enemies! Woohoo!
lordbaldric,
Russia reneged on its previous deal to sell S-300s to Syria only because Israel bitched about the deal so much; that Putin felt the need to appease Israel. Guess what now? Israel has as much pull in Russia now, as the guy trying to cash a check in a bar where his bad checks are posted on the wall beside the cash register. When will we know when this country is Israel’s fool? When American taxpayers are asked to foot the bill for Israel to buy Russian S-400s.
How much did Syria “pay” ? lol. can’t find that anywhere..
Regarding the initial deal, which had been cancelled, the figure was $400 million (USD).
Taking a page out of our Armaments industry.
Guess who else is moving it’s missile defense systems . You guessed it good ole USA .4 missile defense systems known as Patriots will be moved to our NATO allies that border Russia. One good turn deserves another. Israelis should also start supplying the Ukrainians with defensive military aswell .Sleep well Assad this war in your country is going to get expensive, no worries Russia will be able to pay for it for a couple years with the S-400 systems it’s selling to Saudi Arabia and Turkey, your best friends. Wink,wink.
Israelis should also start supplying the Ukrainians with defensive military hardware aswell. It’s only fair if Russia’s helping your enemy why not help there’s?
Good idea
Dumb idea. In any major confrontation, Israel would become a priority target.
Simple answer is for Israel to stop attacking Syria.
Syria doesn’t threaten the United States. The Ukrainians were excellent concentration guards at the camps.
And so where the Russians after WW2…Remember the Berlin Wall?
so where the russians? Are you legal?
Ukraine can wage war against Russia, but when it loses after relying on the moronic Svboda Party, the US can start another round of whining.
Our israeli agent is back on line supporting the entity he loves best.
And our Antiwar Zombie is back to join the cult of original ,en-lightened thinkers…Hahaha. …
Ours were already there.
This is excellent news, although the Haaretz piece says Russia will deliver “two to four” over the next few weeks, with the rest “depending on circumstances.” My guess is most of them will be targeted at Israel, and later a couple may be added to cover the oil fields in the east. Given the long-range of the S-300 systems, this should indeed provide at least limited cover for most of Syria. Since a lot of Syria is desert, there’s not much point in covering those areas. Damascus is what needs to be protected most, of course.
Clearly Russia is targeting Israel with these systems as Israel is by far the more direct threat than the US. And the US could overwhelm the S-300 systems anyway with cruise missiles, which Israel is unable to match.
Israel is going to lose planes and pilots the next time they attack Syria. And that is overdue, but welcome.
most welcome. peace can only be achieved in the middle east when isn’treal is eliminated.
This is very dangerous. Israel is likely to immediately attack those weapon systems. And those weapon systems are likely to be manned by Russian trainers. What a blunder.
Note: dumb and dumber will doubtless chime in with some inane remarks on this subject, but fact is major conflicts start with such miscalculations.
Syria helps Hizzbollah who is ought to destroy Isreal
In fact Hizzbollah is out to get Jews no matter where they live. See Argentina.
Warsaw Ghetto jews were out to get the Germans, too.
“israel has long opposes”? send some s-300’s to them from syria.