[Pietro]

Seems to me that any time Russian air defenses have been required to react to ACTUAL events they've failed in a major way.

Didn't the Syrians employ these systems when the Israelis flew clear across their country and took out TWO strategic assets.

I repeat--the Israelis flew clear across their country

[A.A. Cunningham]

Seems to me that any time Russian air defenses have been required to react to ACTUAL events they've failed in a major way.

You might tell that to all the American aircrews shot down over Vietnam, along with Francis Gary Powers and Rudolf Anderson, by Soviet SAMs.

[Tommyjo]

They didn’t. There were no modern SAM systems in Syria. The Israeli’s took the path of least resistance to get to an undefended target in the Syrian desert. Part of that route involved the use of Turkish airspace on egress and ingress.

The Israeli’s aren’t stupid. There is no magic button to press to disable an entire air defense system. The Syrians kept the nuclear site clear of any air defence systems so as to not bring attention to the facility. What you are relying on is the likes of Debka who gave Syria every modern Russian SAM system.

Maybe you would like to ask the Israeli’s pilot’s during Yom Kippur of how deadly an integrated SAM system is? Look at the losses the Israeli’s suffered to SAMs during that conflict.