I don’t buy it. You need some serious advanced technology for this. As little as 5 years ago, the S300 was the most advanced system in the world, and Israel took out Syria’s without breaking a sweat.
Adding 100 to the series, doesn’t make it better.
Putting its reach out to 400km is what I’d think is a game changer, frankly. That pretty much denies command, control and surveillance from things like JSTARs and other CC aircraft. Also, the inclusion of different types of missiles integrated into the system offers multiple options.
Here is a great site that discusses this system:
http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-S-400-Triumf.html
This is an error that is repeated in many threads on SAM systems. That the Israelis took out S-300s in Syria, and did so without a sweat.
The truth?
Israel never took out any S-300 system for the simple fact that none was present. The Syrians had a medley of old SAM systems, with the only new system at play (and the one that Israel took out) being the Tor-M1 (SA-15 Gauntlet) SAM systems. The Tor-M1 is a short range point-defense missile system that Syria used to defend their al-Kibar nuclear facility.
The Tor-M1 is not the S-300, and the threat profile of the two systems is very different. Israel has pressured Russia not to sell the system to Iran and Syria (prior to the Assad regime getting far greater problems to focus on), has tried to use financial and trade incentives with Russia to dissuade the sale, and even threatened to attack any transports carrying those missiles.
The S-300 is not seen as a 'joke' by people who actually have to plan to defeat such systems. Israel actually practices against the Greek S-300 systems to develop workable solutions against an S-300 IADS, and I am certain that they have a good answer to the S-300 ...it will just not be as easy and taking out a Tor-M1.
In a nutshell, the S-300 (and similar systems and variants like the Chinese HQ-9, which is a S-300 copy), as well as follow-ons like the S-400 and the projected S-500, are serious air-defense systems that are taken very seriously by those that actually have to send men to face such systems. For example, the HQ-9 is the system that makes the IADS around Shanghai and Beijing virtually sterile.