President Trump launches military strike against the Al-Assad regime

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https://sputniknews.com/military/201708251056801673-russian-anti-aircraft-system-syria/

Deputy Commander of the Russian Air Force of the High Command of the Aerospace Forces says that Russian anti-aircraft missile system covers targets within 250 miles.

KUBINKA (Moscow Region) (Sputnik) — The range of the Russian anti-aircraft system deployed at the Hmeymim air base in Syria covers all air targets within a radius of 400 kilometers (250 miles), Maj. Gen. Sergey Meshcheryakov, Deputy Commander of the Russian Air Force of the High Command of the Aerospace Forces, said Friday.

"Anti-aircraft missile systems [in Hmeymim] cover all aerial targets within a radius of 400 kilometers and below 35 kilometers," Meshcheryakov said.

The Russian anti-aircraft forces stationed at the Hmeymim air base comprise a radio-technical battalion, a Pantsir-S (SA-22 Greyhound) anti-aircraft missile gun system battery, and several S-400 (SA-21 Growler) anti-aircraft missile systems, he added.

"As of today, a unified integrated anti-aircraft defense system is established in Syria. Russian and Syrian aerial reconnaissance assets are mutually integrated in information and equipment systems. All the information about the tactical situation in the air obtained by Syrian radars is transferred to the operational centers of the Russian forces," Meshcheryakov said.

He also said that the Russian Aerospace Forces inflicted a significant damage on the infrastructure of Daesh. According to Meshcheryakov, the Aerospace Forces hampered the groups' logistics and its ability to feed reinforcement to the troops by destroying ammunition and fuel warehouses, and weaponry maintenance factories.

Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with government forces fighting Syrian opposition groups striving to overthrow the president, while also fighting numerous extremist and terrorist groups. Moscow launched its anti-terrorist operation in Syria on September 30, 2015, at the request of Damascus.

In March 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a pullout of the bulk of the Russian contingent in Syria, since the campaign's objectives had been largely completed. Following Putin’s announcement of the withdrawal, Moscow said that some Russian military personnel would remain at the Hmeymim air base as well as the naval facility at Tartus to observe the implementation of the ceasefire in Syria.

 

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https://sputniknews.com/military/201708261056819376-russian-syrian-satellite-communications-purpose/

Russian forces in Syria have built up a network of satellite communication stations to make up for communications links lost during the war. Speaking to Sputnik, military observer Boris Rozhin said that among other benefits, the link provides an important means for communication between the Russian and US forces operating in the country.

Reporting on the results of Russia's military operation in Syria so far, Lieutenant General Khalil Arslanov, the head of the Main Communications Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces, said that Russian forces' successes include the establishment of a network of satellite communication stations across the war-torn country.

"Land-based satellite communications stations have increased three-fold, the capacity of repeater stations has increased, work has been carried out to reorient antenna systems of military and dual-use satellites, and leased resources have been increased," Arslanov said, speaking at a round table devoted to the Syrian military campaign on Friday.

According to the officer, Russian forces had to overcome several challenges to establish the satellite comms network, including low capacity and so-called dead zones in coverage. This was made up for by the widespread use of mobile and portable communications stations.

In addition, Russian signals specialists have taken an active role in helping to rebuild Syria's stationary TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) trunked radio network, a communications technology used in many countries by government agencies, emergency services, transport and the military.

Syria's wired and trunked communications systems have been heavily damaged in the course of Damascus's long foreign-backed civil war against a broad collection of militant and extremist forces, including Daesh and the Nusra Front terrorist group.

Speaking to Radio Sputnik, Boris Rozhin, an expert at the Center of Military-Political Journalism, said that the satellite communications network created by Russian forces ensures the capability for effective operational interaction between the Russian and US militaries operating in Syria.

"This form of communications connection has a military-political importance, because the activities of the Russian Aerospace Forces and the coalition led by the United States in Syria require contact between these forces in areas where both countries are carrying out operations," the expert said.

"Agreements exist on the prevention of incidents in the air; this requires operational interaction between the Russian and US military. Therefore, a good communications connection is essential in order to avoid delay or failure to deliver information," Rozhin stressed.

Accordingly, the expert said that "the development and satellite and mobile communications systems in Syria facilitates such contacts and reduces the likelihood of incidents which may otherwise have serious military and political consequences."

Russia began its military operation in Syria in September 2015, after being invited into the country by President Bashar Assad to assist in anti-terrorist operations. Officers speaking at Friday's roundtable reported that in the course of Russia's 23 month mission, the Russian Aerospace Forces have flown approximately 28,000 sorties, inflicting 90,000 strikes against terrorist targets. Russian air support has helped the Syrian Army to regain control over 50,000 square kilometers of territory, while destroying terrorist bases, supply routes, command and logistics infrastructure, and cutting off their sources of income from stolen oil.

 

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http://www.arabnews.com/node/1151856/middle-east

US MILITARY FACILITY IN MIDDLE EAST: US Air Force pilot Lt. Col. Jeremy Renken knew that whatever happened next might escalate the war in Syria.

The 40-year-old father of four was flying his F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet in “a race track” pattern around an Iranian-made drone, which had just tried to kill US-backed forces and their advisers on the ground.

After the drone’s first shot failed to detonate on impact, it was positioning to strike again.

So, on June 8, in what was an unprecedented move in the US air war over Syria to that point, Renken shot it down, even as two Russian fighter jets watched from a distance.

“When we saw the drone turn back toward friendly forces, we weren’t waiting around for anybody’s permission. We destroyed it,” Renken said in his first interview about the incident.

Renken’s downing of the Iranian drone, a Shaheed 129, was the first in a series of several defensive US air-to-air shootdowns over several weeks in June that at first appeared to signal a tipping point to a far more dangerous air war in Syria.

But since the decisions by Renken and other US pilots to fire at two drones and a manned Syrian fighter jet in June, there haven’t been similarly provocative actions by pro-Syrian forces. US officials say they seem to have delivered the message.


Renken’s case, in many ways, highlights not just the risks of Syrian conflict in which Russia, Syria, the United States and its allies are flying military jets within targeting range of each other.

But it also illustrates the tremendous responsibility entrusted to US pilots to make life-or-death decisions in an instant, with broad, strategic implications for the war.

Renken spoke with Reuters from a US military installation in the Middle East, which does not disclose its location at the request of the country hosting it.

LETHAL INTENT

Renken, a squadron commander, developed his Air Force career in the shadow of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States by Al-Qaeda. He was training as a pilot when suicide hijackers flew into the World Trade Center and has since deployed over and over again to the Middle East.

But Renken acknowledges that the Syrian air war is, in his view, unique.

US pilots, who have enjoyed air supremacy against the insurgents they’ve been battling in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, cannot be sanguine about the risks posed by advanced Russian or Syrian jets or ground-based air defense in Syria.

Armed aircraft from Syria, Russia, the United States and its coalition allies are all flying within a “no escape” range of each other’s weapons.

“We can all engage each other. So it takes a lot of discipline and studying the nuance of a circumstance to (determine): ‘Was that an escalation?’,” Renken said.

As US-backed and Russia-backed ground forces scramble to capture what is left of Daesh’s caliphate, the risk of accidental contacts between the sides is growing, raising the stakes both on the ground and in the air.

But while the US military has had years to iron out how and when to engage Daesh fighters on the ground, American pilots are still gaining experience deciphering hostile intent by other aircraft in the skies above Syria.

CLOSER THAN THOUGHT

The US Air Force proudly boasts that no US soldier has been killed by enemy aircraft since 1953. But the drone attack threatened to change that, if accounts by two US officials of a limited American presence in the convoy that day are correct.

The US military initially said the drone dropped a bomb that missed the convoy, which included US-backed fighters and their advisers. Renken offered a slightly different account.

He said the drone was actually carrying missiles. When it fired, it hit the door of one of the vehicles with a munition that failed to detonate, he said.

“It was a dud round. So, very lucky,” Renken said. “It was definitely intended to be a lethal shot.” The criteria needed to fire the drone had been clearly met, he said.

Still, one factor complicating his decision to return fire was the presence of the Russian “Flanker” fighter jets, who might think that Renken was shooting at them.

“Is (the Russian pilot) going to see a missile come off of my aircraft and consider that a potential aggression against him?” he explained.

Another problem was that the drone was small enough that the missile Renken would fire could potentially go long and inadvertently head toward the Russian jet.

“(There) was a lot of potential for escalation,” he said.

For Renken, the big takeaway for pilots is that the war in Syria has evolved far beyond simply striking Daesh targets on the ground.

US pilots have to be prepared for anything.

“What this recent event has proven is that you can’t take for granted that you know what the fight is going to look like,” Renken said.
“You need to walk in ready for it to metastasize into any hybrid variation.”

 

[Hindustani78]

https://sputniknews.com/military/201709131057369744-us-tomahawk-strike-moving-targets/

America’s missile-maker of choice, Raytheon, has secured a $119 million contract to equip Tomahawk cruise missiles with multi-model seekers, allowing the projectiles to strike moving targets at sea.

The contract award was announced September 12, according to a Raytheon press release. The US Navy has had its eyes on the Tomahawk as a short-term solution for a long-range anti-surface missile since at least 2015, according the US Naval Institute News.

The deal is part of a Rapid Capability Development program "to meet urgent fleet requirements for defeating emerging maritime threats worldwide," the company said Tuesday.

According to Capt. Mark Johnson, Tomahawk program manager at US Naval Air Systems Command, "Tomahawk’s new multi-mode seeker will add even more capability to this already advanced missile."

Each individual Block IV Tomahawk, named after the characteristic stone axe invented by Algonquin Indians in America’s early days, costs $1.87 million. They were originally designed for US Navy submarines and surface ships to conduct strikes against land-based targets and first entered service in 1983.

In April, the USS Ross and USS Porter fired 59 Tomahawks from the Mediterranean Sea at the Syrian government’s Sha’irat Air Base in Syria’s Homs Governorate in retaliation to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s alleged chemical weapon attack against civilian targets in Idlib, Syria.

"Soon the weapon will defeat moving maritime targets," Johnson said in a release, adding, "enemy vessels will not elude Tomahawk."

 

[Hindustani78]

MOSCOW:, September 25, 2017 19:10 IST
Updated: September 25, 2017 19:21 IST

http://www.thehindu.com/news/intern...f-us-policy/article19752396.ece?homepage=true

In this Feb. 22, 2013 photo, Russian high level officer Valery Asapov, right, poses for a photo with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during an award ceremony in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. Russia's Defense Ministry said on Sunday, Lt. Gen. Asapov has been killed in fighting in Syria. | Photo Credit: AP


The Russian Defence Ministry said on Sunday the general had been killed by shelling near Deir al-Zor.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that “two-faced policy” of the United States was to blame for the death of Russian general Valery Asapov in Syria, RIA news agency quoted him as saying on Monday.

“The death of the Russian commander is the price, the bloody price for the two-faced American policy in Syria,” Mr. Ryabkov told reporters, according to RIA.

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Sunday the general had been killed by shelling near Deir al-Zor.