25 yr. Navy commander wrote:
..”The Navy ships we currently have in the Med surounding Syria, ready to lauch their missiles are no match for the P800 Yahont missiles Syria has to defend itself from any attack.
The P800 missiles are simply too fast with advance radar and guidance systems and our ships have no counter measures to defend themselves from them....They could easily sink our carriers and their escorts without knowing what hit them.
Syria is also armed with the S300 SAM and the more advanced S400 anti-aircraft missiles which could shoot our fighter jets and drones down like shooting fish in a barrel.
Syria is not going to be a walk in the park like Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya where we controled the skies.
I wonder how Americans would react if they start seeing some of our ships sunk and our planes dropping from the skies...... A strike against Syria will escalate rapidly to a major war which we will again lose and all for what?”
The P-800 Oniks (Russian: П-800 Оникс; English: Onyx), also known in export markets as Yakhont has a range of 120 to 300 km (74.6 to 186.4 mi) depending on altitude. Our ships can stay well outside that range and launch their Tomahawk missiles, which have a range of 2500 km.
Carrier groups operate well outside the coastlines. They are in no danger from the Syrians.