The Israelis knowcked out most, if not all of those missiles a couple of months ago in an attack on the port aimed specifically at those missiles.
Also, those missiles, while very dangerous, have significantly less range than our Tomahawks, so our ships can stay far enough out to sea to be able to hit all the targets in Syria without coming into range of those missiles even if Syria has some left.
Those missiles would be a lot more dangerous to us if they were able to be loaded on the SU-24s or Mig-29s Assad has...but that capability never arrived in Syria and the aircraft have not been upgraded to launch them. The Yahkonts have a range that is comparable to our Standard Missile defenses on the AEGHIS destroyers, so aircraft carrying them may be able to launch them without haveing to enter the kill envelope of the SMs.
But, they did not get that capability, and as I said, the Israelis got most, if not all of those missiles anyway. Any they have left would be launched from shore and we will simply stay out of their range.
Now, the Syrians have 75-100 Kh-31 missiles, which they can load onto the SU-24s and Mg-29s. They too are danerous weapons. But their range is signifcantly shorter than the Standard Missiles the AEGIS destroyers are firing and so the aircraft have to fly quite a distance into the Standard Missile envelope and are going to get hammered before they ever launch. We have all the advantage in such an engagement because our AWACS will see any large group of aircraft taking off, forming up, and coming out against the US vessels. We will be ready for them.
If we do not have our own aircraft up out of Italy to intercept them, or the French carrier aircraft do not intercept them (which I believe they would) then they still have to fly fairly deep into the combined weight of five AEGIS destroyers missile defense before they can launch.
I do not believe Assad will throw away his entire modern air force to take the chance (and a bad one at that) that he might get a hit from any of those Kh-31s.
AFAIK, missiles are P-800, not Kh-31 and it’s range are on par or slightly wider comparing to most variants of Standards.
Hi, Jeff,
You seem to be really “up” on the weapons capabilities... What capabilities do the Syrians AND the Russians have to shoot down incoming Tomahawks?
Do we know to what degree Assad has been able to move assets into either hardened facilities, or into civilian areas?
What are Iran’s capabilities to respond to US at this point (beyond Hezbollah-type activities)? I recall that Iran had obtained / was supposedly trying to upgrade North Korean BM-25’s, I believe?