Posted on 11/03/2019 12:43:03 PM PST by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
Russia’s advanced S-400 air defense batteries at the Khmeimim Air Base in Syria have been quietly “deactivated,” according to Russian military sources and publications. This has not been officially confirmed or denied. One source said that today, not a single S-400 is operational anywhere in Syria.
Three months ago, DEBKAfile’s military sources cited the Syrian military as reporting that the Russian S-400s posted outside the important Syrian military compound at Masyaf in the west had been “deactivated” indicating the shutdown of their radar systems.
Our sources note that, although Russian S-300 and S-400 air defense systems have been deployed in Syria for the past four years, they have never been used against the assaults mounted by Israel’s Israeli Air Force against Iranian military targets. All the same, in spite of the coordination and understandings forged between Russia and Israel, Israeli air crews have always taken the presence of these advanced weapons into careful consideration whenever they flew into Syrian air space. The reason for the Russian decision to switch off its air defense is a matter of speculation, whether because of budgetary pressure or perhaps preparatory to the evacuation of all those systems from Syria. Another theory is that Moscow has been so successful in marketing its S-400s to foreign countries, that it has run short of them for Russia’s own fronts, such as the Black Sea or opposite the Baltic states.
This week, for the first time since the Russians military intervention in the Syrian war began in 2015, an American B-52 strategic bomber flew over Khmeimim and then headed down the Syrian coast before turning east and landing in Jordan. Our sources report that the lone US bomber was likely on a mission to test Russia’s reported neutralization of its state-of-the-art defense systems in Syria.
Back when I was I nAir Defense (just after we’d advancer form coordinated rock throwing) we kept our radars silent to deny info on them from others.
Woo and Yay.
Or they just don’t work.
What good is defensive radar if it is turned off?
Condition EMCON. Ooraah!
“Or they just don’t work.”
The Russians used a lot of “homemade shit” to defeat the Germans in WW II. Russians are a brilliant people who have been traumatized by history and geography. If they want something to work they can make it work as well as to be maintained, serviced, and used by any random drunken peasant.
You turn it on when you really need it. We never did in my sefvice (we did pack up to go to Israel in ‘74, but didn’t- I think Nixon just wanted the Russians to think about that)
For other reasons we and Israel are no threat to their bases.
I guess the homemade drones that are are handled by other means.
“What good is defensive radar if it is turned off?”
Pretty good, actually, when equipped with a Tracking Adjunct (telescope) System.
AFAIK the HAWK was never used by us in action (Imptoved HAWK, I believe was used by Israel in action)
Scuttlebutt was that Marines used it in Nam.
Back when I was I nAir Defense (just after we’d advancer form coordinated rock throwing) we kept our radars silent to deny info on them from others.
+++++
There is some logic to that. But you need to answer a simple question:
How do you know when to turn them on?
General aviation radar at distance. You leave your run of the mill systems on where they expect them. As soon as they “see” something you turn on the systems.
Intelligence, threat status stuff, diplomacy, spies... that sort of stuff.
I was in Fla, Cuban jets would overfly and we didn’t target them. Also in Germany- don’t think sov Union ever overflew us.
Yeah, a surprise attack is possible, but other people decided how likely that was.
My memory is a littlw fuzzy, but I think the big deal for us was keeping them from knowing which of many frequencies we were using.
Today’s radars are very different I’m sure, but operational info would still be protected.
The Vulcan platoon and battery I led had no radars.......or computers.
Debka is such an unreliable source it’s useless to believe what they report.
debka is an Israeli military propaganda source that bases nearly all of their articles on anonymous sources ...
Debka. Nuff’ said.
Many of the ‘Lifers’ in Hawk batteries came from the Vulcan.
Wiki says it was last used in Desert Storm.
Debka is not an always reliable source, granted, but they do often get stuff right. It is worth seeing what they are saying. Base descisions on it, NO. Keep an eye on it, yes.
” ..a tracking adjunct (telescope) system”
Is that the same or part of the quasi nemonic microfractional posi nucleic recombiner like the one used in the Captain Video series (season 4, episode 8 1953)?
I remember watching that with my pal Ed Norton.
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