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How Does Israel Keep Getting Past Syria's Air Defenses?

(Syria Direct) Will Christou - There is deep frustration in Damascus at what seems to be a never-ending string of Israeli airstrikes. It appears the Syrian government has decided that Russia's air-defense systems, rather than its Syrian operators, are to blame for the failure to stop these strikes. In October 2018, Moscow gifted Damascus the S-300 air defense system in spite of vocal protests from numerous Western countries. However, the S-300 has an inherent limitation, said Sitki Egeli, former Director of International Affairs for Turkey's Undersecretariat for Defense Industries. "The S-300 suffers from the problem of radar horizon, meaning targets cannot be detected if they're lying low due to the curvature of the earth. Strike aircraft, such as F-16s, fly relatively close to the surface of the earth, and by the time they're detected, they have already launched their munitions, so it's too late." Typically, this blind spot is compensated by other components of an integrated air defense system, such as airborne early warning aircraft and passive ground-based sensors. In the case of Syria, however, equipment is either too dilapidated to detect more advanced Israeli technology in time, or personnel is too thinly-stretched and poorly-trained to operate the necessary equipment. "There is little doubt that [Israel] is using cyber attacks and electronic countermeasures in parallel with its airstrikes," Egeli added.
2020-05-08 00:00:00
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