The Damascus sky lights up with surface-to-air missile fire. Photograph: Hassan Ammar/AP
USA Today: 105 to 0: Why Syria's air defenses failed to intercept a single incoming missile
WASHINGTON — Syria’s once well-regarded air defense system completely failed to defend against the U.S.-led strike on the country's chemical weapons facilities last week, highlighting how far the regime's military has declined, according to the Pentagon and military analysts.
The Syrians fired 40 interceptor missiles, but most of them didn’t even get off the ground until allied missiles had already hit their targets, Pentagon officials said. The interceptor missiles appeared to lack guidance systems.
“Nearly every one was launched after the last of our missiles hit their targets,” Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said.
The failure highlights how ineffective Syria’s military has become and the degree to which it now depends on Russia and Iran, its principal sponsors, for security, said Christopher Kozak, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War.
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WNU Editor: Seven years of continuous war would deplete any military in the world. My guess is that even though the Syrians may have air defenses, they are either undermanned and/or the personnel are not adequately trained.
3 comments:
Wow the miss information on this is bogus. Why send 105 missiles then? Fact is so many were sent from so many locations in order to overwhelm the Syrian air defences. The US even went so far as to plead the Russians not to use their more sophisticated systems.
Anon,
You are pretty worked up. Is this personal for you?
They hit three targets. How many missiles does it take to destroy each targeted building?
Start there and you will fill in some blanks.
The Russians didn’t power up their missile defenses because they didn’t want to expose their radar signatures to the US. Or.worse, be found to be easily defeated.
Assad isn’t worth it to Putin
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