Breaking: Russian Pantsir-S AA guns destroyed both waves of Israeli cruise missiles

Syrian force shot down 13 Israeli air-launched cruise missiles during Feb. 10 attack – Russian media

… from Southfront

[ Editor’s Note: We finally have some officially reported details of the recent Israeli Airforce attack on Syria. The main disclosure is the Syrian had used the Pantsir-S short range system, specifically designed to take down cruise missiles when closing on their targets.

These systems have a variety of missiles to use depending on the altitude and type of incoming threat, plus a 30mm cannon as a last defense for itself.

Behind the weapons is the high tech radar tracking, also design to defend against swarm missile attacks which is the name of the game in modern warfare. We will be following closely the responses we get on this from various capitals.

The Russians had to be involved, particularly in early warning to the Syrian defense crews. A lot of coordination is needed to make sure the attacking force can be properly analyzed so the appropriate gun positions are assigned specific targets.

Timing is critical as in this case, Syrian fire might have been withheld until the Israeli planes launched their missiles. The Pantsirs (I am assuming more then one system) would have engaged those and then other missiles fired on the retreating Israeli planes.

The speed with which all this has to be done is incredible, and one would have to ask were Russians actually manning the Pantsir systems, as they require very highly trained people.

Israel has countered this news by claiming it took our a large part of Syrian air defenses, but without the usual video camera proof, the only one so far showing a panel truck at the T-4 base being struck.

The other big part of the story is how Israel quickly launched a second attack, designed to have empty Syrian batteries as easy targets, but Syria claims to have shot down most of the second wave, showing that the “Russian advised” air defense system had war-gamed for consecutive attacks like this. We should be hearing more on this… Jim W. Dean ]

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– First published … February 14, 2018 –

The Syrian military shot down 13 Israeli air-launched cruise missiles additionally to the F-16I multirole fighter, which crashed in Israel, during the February 10 encounter in Syrian airspace, the Russian newspaper Izvestia reported on February 14 citing a source in the Syrian General Staff. MORE ABOUT THE ENCOUNTER

According to the report, the Syrian military used S-200, Buk and Pantsir-S systems against Israeli aircraft and missiles. During the first strike on Syria, Israeli aircraft reportedly launched 11 air-launched cruise missiles. 8 of them were intercepted. During the second strike, Israeli aircraft launched 7 air-launched cruise missiles. Syrian forces intercepted 5 of them.

The report added that the missiles were the key target of Syrian forces. The only aircraft, which violated Syrian airspace, was also shot down. It was the aforementioned F-16I. Russian and Syrian sources reached by Izvestia did not deny or confirm reports that the F-16I was targeted with an old-fashioned S-200 missile.

The article also provided additional details about the February 7 incident when Israeli warplanes struck the Damascus countryside. According to the article, Israeli aircraft launched 8 missiles and Syrian forces intercepted 6 of them.

Jim W. Dean

Jim W. Dean is VT Editor Emeritus.  He was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022.  He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews.  He now writes and posts periodically for VT.

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