78 // OCTOBER 2018 #367 http://www.airforcesmonthly.comAir war over Syria
IAF briefed the media that only five SAM
batteries had been hit in the May 10 raids.
Again, reports of knockout blows against
the SyADF were apparently overstated.
The common thread running through all
the air and missile operations against Syria
this year has been the reliance of the Israeli,
US, British and French air forces on standoff
missiles. The US Navy TLAM has a range of
more than 621 miles (1,000km), the US Air
Force JASSM’s range is 230 miles (370km)
the SCALP/Storm Shadow can hit targets
348 miles (560km) from the launch point.
Despite the ‘mission accomplished’
rhetoric from US President Donald Trump
and Israeli government officials, the SyADF
appears to be very much still in business.
Two more suspected Israeli air strikes on
May 24 and June 18 involved standoff
attacks from outside Syrian airspace.
Israeli and allied air commanders have
little appetite to send manned aircraft
‘downtown’ over Damascus. Their caution
suggests that claims of the SyADF being
‘devastated’ are meant for public relations
purposes, not prudent military planning.
On May 1 the Russian landing ship Nikolay
Filchenkov salied through the Bosphorus,
heading to Syria. On her deck were around
a dozen large vehicles under tarpaulins.
Although they couldn’t be positively identified,
they matched the shape of Pantsirs or Buk
air defence systems. The confrontation
in the skies over Syria looks like it will
continue for many months to come.of 27 SAMs that scored a near hit on one of the
Israeli jets, forcing the crew to eject. This was a
major boost to SyADF morale and Syrian media
lauded its missile crews for their endeavours.
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) inquiry later
blamed the F-16I’s crew for being too focused
on aiming their weapons and not activating their
defensive aid suite when they came under SAM
attack. The Israeli defence minister at the time
claimed that “nearly half of Syria’s air defences”
had been destroyed in these strikes.
T-4 came under renewed attack
on April 9 but there were no
reports of a response by the
SyADF, suggesting that this
time the Israeli jets approached
from the south or east,
away from the Damascus
missile engagement zone.
The next big test of the
SyADF came on the morning of
April 14 when the US, France and
UK launched a major cruise missile
strike against targets they said were involved
in Syria’s chemical weapons programme.
This saw 76 of the 105 allied cruise missiles
fired on Syria’s main chemical research
facility on a hillside above Damascus. The
remainder were aimed at two storage sites
in the Homs countryside. All the allied
missiles were launched from outside Syria’s
borders. The Russian MoD subsequently
claimed 71 allied missiles were shot down,
including 20 in Homs province and the
remainder around Damascus. The Pentagon
vehemently denied that any of its weapons
were hit by Syrian missiles and rejected
Russian claims that several air bases and other
targets had been struck by allied missiles.The Kremlin later published a set of
photographs showing missile debris and
claimed to have taken possession of two
undamaged US Navy Tomahawk Land Attack
Missiles (TLAM) that were recovered intact
by the Syrian military. One of the images
apparently showed the unexploded warhead
of a TLAM. While the debris seemed to
include components from all the allied missile
types used – TLAM, JASSM and SCALP/
Storm Shadow – Western analysts dispute
they represent the remains of 70 missiles.
The accounts of the Americans and
Russians appeared to be at odds. Both
sides had the technical means to monitor
the missile engagement in real time, but
neither was inclined to engage in an
open debate about the performance of
their weapon systems and radars.
One thing seems clear. Israeli claims to have
knocked out half the SyADF in February were
exaggerated. Further Israeli air strikes wererecorded on April 29 and May 8, with the first
of these taking place near the northern cities
of Aleppo and Hama. According to local
media reports, the Aleppo and Hama raids
involved Israeli aircraft flying out over Jordan
and Iraq to approach their targets from the
east in areas where there is limited SyADF and
Russian radar coverage. They then launched
standoff missiles at their targets. The May
8 strike may have involved standoff missiles
being fired from within Israeli or Lebanese
airspace. Later in May, the IAF commander
revealed that F-35A Adirs took part in these
raids – the type’s first ever combat missions.
This was only a prelude to a major air
strike on May 10, aimed at targets linked to
the Iranian presence in Syria. According
to an IDF infographic, around three dozen
targets were hit. The Russians claimed
28 Israeli aircraft fired 60 standoff cruise
missiles and a further ten surface-to-surface
missiles were fired. The IAF reported that
100 SAMs had been launched in response.
Around a third of the Israeli targets have
been identified from a variety of sources,
including satellite imagery, Syrian news
reports and Israeli bomb damage assessment
video. Only two of them were linked to air
defences, including one Pantsir system and
a radar site for an S-200 (SA-5 Gammon)
battery. The remainder appeared to be
storage depots and barracks reportedly used
by Iranian forces. Israeli ministers on May
11 talked about “devastating” the Syrian air
defence network, but a few days later theSyADF surface-to-air missiles
fi red and kill claims, April 14, 2018
Pantsir (SA-22) 25 missiles hit 24 targets
Buk (SA-17) 29 missiles hit 24 targets
Osa (SA-8) 11 missiles hit 5 targets
S-125 (SA-3) 13 missiles hit 5 targets
Strela-10 (SA-13) 5 missiles hit 3 targets
Kvadrat/Kub (SA-6) 21 missiles hit 11 targets
S-200 (SA-5) 8 missiles hit 0 targets
Total: 112 SAMs fi red
Source: Russian MoDAbove: ‘Legacy’ air defence equipment still in Syrian service includes the 9M33
Osa (SA-8 ‘Gecko’) SAM system, fi rst fi elded by Syria in Lebanon during the 1980s.
Examples of this system have also been captured by anti-regime forces and used in
turn against SyAAF helicopters fl ying over rebel-held territory.
Left: The other modern SAM system in the SyADF order of battle is the Pantsir (SA-22
‘Greyhound’) gun/missile system. This example is seen in the crosshairs of Israeli
warplanes during a raid on Mezzeh air base on May 10. IDFSyria has never retired any SAM system and continues to operate both dual and quadruple launchers
for the Cold War-era S-125 (SA-3 ‘Goa’). The later, quadruple variant is more common and is found at
locations throughout the country.AFM74-78 Syrian AFM Oct2018.indd 78 9/10/2018 11:04:04 AM