"The General Staff is currently preparing additional measures to ensure the safety of aircraft engaged in Syria. First: all attack aircraft will be escorted by fighter fighters. Second: measures will be taken to strengthen air defense with immediate coverage by the 'cruiser Moscow. We communicate that any, we repeat any potential enemy, will be destroyed. Third: all military contacts with Turkey have been interrupted. " This is what they have just communicated from the Russian General Staff.
As we reiterated last October 5, Putin has in fact established a sort of no-fly zones thanks to the deployment of the missile cruiser Moscow to protect the coastal city of Latakia. The defensive screen also covers the southern area of Turkey and those bases used by the US for raids in Syria.
A single boat, the question could be lawful for non-experts, could it really discourage US-led coalition fighters? The answer is yes, because the Moskva carries with it 64 ground-air missiles S-300 PMU-1 / 2. Those 64 latest-generation missiles capable of shooting down both fighters and ballistic missiles make the Slava class carrier a coalition nightmare. If to this we add that the one before the Syrian coasts is the most powerful ship ever built by the Soviet Navy, designed expressly to devastate the US aircraft carriers (not for nothing the Slava are nicknamed "carrier-killer" with its SS-N-12 Sandbox launched into swarms), the picture appears even more sinister.
The pretext of the safe air corridor to hit ISIS requires the coalition to review the entire strategy because it will be forced to coordinate every operation with Syria, Russia and Lebanon.
The alternative? fly in an airspace protected by the latest generation of missile batteries and, after today's episodes, trigger-happy. No air force present in the Region could rise because it would be at the mercy of the S-300s. Those 150 km of range are a nightmare for Israeli, British, Jordanian and Turkish fighters. The Americans themselves have mostly F-16 fighters in the Region that would have no way out against similar shielding.
(photo: TASS)
