Posted on 11/03/2019 12:43:03 PM PST by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
Russias advanced S-400 air defense batteries at the Khmeimim Air Base in Syria have been quietly deactivated, according to Russian military sources and publications. This has not been officially confirmed or denied. One source said that today, not a single S-400 is operational anywhere in Syria.
Three months ago, DEBKAfiles military sources cited the Syrian military as reporting that the Russian S-400s posted outside the important Syrian military compound at Masyaf in the west had been deactivated indicating the shutdown of their radar systems.
Our sources note that, although Russian S-300 and S-400 air defense systems have been deployed in Syria for the past four years, they have never been used against the assaults mounted by Israels Israeli Air Force against Iranian military targets. All the same, in spite of the coordination and understandings forged between Russia and Israel, Israeli air crews have always taken the presence of these advanced weapons into careful consideration whenever they flew into Syrian air space. The reason for the Russian decision to switch off its air defense is a matter of speculation, whether because of budgetary pressure or perhaps preparatory to the evacuation of all those systems from Syria. Another theory is that Moscow has been so successful in marketing its S-400s to foreign countries, that it has run short of them for Russias own fronts, such as the Black Sea or opposite the Baltic states.
This week, for the first time since the Russians military intervention in the Syrian war began in 2015, an American B-52 strategic bomber flew over Khmeimim and then headed down the Syrian coast before turning east and landing in Jordan. Our sources report that the lone US bomber was likely on a mission to test Russias reported neutralization of its state-of-the-art defense systems in Syria.
Oh yes they did!
Signal to Iran - your Syrian assets are Israeli toast.
General aviation radar at distance. You leave your run of the mill systems on where they expect them. As soon as they see something you turn on the systems.
+++++
Makes sense. Thanks for the input.
How do you know when to turn them on?
When you passive systems tell you to.
Or it’s just Debka.
Most likely this is Trump and Pompeo working behind the scenes to have them removed.
HAEK had two radar systems, a CW ranging radar that saw planes and a PAR radar that targeted them - it was only the targeting radar that we weren’t allowed to turn on.
So we could see activity.
Afraid mu comments above gave the wrong impression (memory).
Damn that Trump! /s
Would that be like when the PRC's long range search radar paints a very fast mover approaching? Then they turn on targeting radars to attempt a shoot down.
Americans would never think of using that to gain elint on the now active systems, or to listen in on their comm's response to the intrusion.
Ya, duh, we'd never do that.
Is the Syrian war (The Kenyan’s war) over? I can never tell.
This should be easy enough to confirm, in this day of widely-available commercial satellite imagery. Compare a recent shot of Russian S-400 facilities (say, over the last week) with imagery of the same locations three or four months ago. If the Russians are truly deactivating these complexes, there should be a noticeable decrease in the number of deployed radars, launchers, comm vans, support equipment and even facilities for personnel. If there is no change in hardware at the sites, then the Russians are probably practicing EMCON, and the sites could be fully operational in a matter of seconds.
One more note: with today’s advanced SAM technology, the absence of radar emissions isn’t the best indicator of the site’s operational status. Many of the missiles have active seekers, and can launch without lock-on, or utilize radar tracking from another site. That latter trick, BTW, was first used against our aircraft over North Vietnam 50 years ago.
They kept their guns oiled while the germans guns failed from the Russian cold. Hitler was an idiot.
Ill take Rivet Joint for $200, Alex
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I am by no means an expert but that would be my first guess. The S-400 are fairly newer systems. Why give away any signals? That would just give information on the better ways to evade them. Not to mention to give away their location so that enemies would know where to target first.
And anyway it’s not like they are going to shoot anyone down. Russia puts them on the ground and it’s a good show and all, but they are not there to defend Syria or ISIS or anyone but Russian forces. They are not going to fire on US jets or Israeli jets for many reasons - including the fact that the US and Israel probably always informs Russia in advance that some or another air attack is coming and for Russia to steer clear. Israel/US doesn’t want to bomb Russians and Russians don’t want to shoot down US allies. So there is no reason to activate them at this point.
Or to avoid taking an anti-radiation missile up the spout!
Our Vulcans (M163A1’s) did have a range and lead-only radar, but were short range compared to the HAWK and Patriot REMF’s!
cheers,
Yep, we were called SHORAD Officers, Short Range Air Defense Officers.
Hawk *could* move to an area and not activate our CWAR radars.
In which case we’d have no knowledge or incoming flights except from other sources, but neither would enemy aircraft know we were there- until we ‘lit them up’ and downed them
Don’t reckon that tactic would work well with today’s satellite coverage.
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