https://southfront.org/us-led-strikes-on-syria-pr-victory-or-decisive-failure/
Early on April 14, the US, the UK and France delivered a massive missile strike on Syria. The attack was publicly justified with accusations that the Syrian government had allegedly been behind the so-called Douma chemical attack on April 7. US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis described the strikes as “harder” than the 2017 strikes on Shayrat military airfield.
The Pentagon said that the US and its allies had launched 105 missiles at the alleged “chemical weapons” facilities of the Assad government and all of them had precisely hit their targets.
The attack involved the following means and launchers:
- The USS Monterey CG61 fired 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the Red Sea.
- The USS Laboon DDG58 fired 7 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the Red Sea.
- The USS Higgins DDG76 fired 23 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the Persian Gulf.
- The USS John Warner SSN785 fired 6 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the Mediterranean.
- The French frigate LANGUEDOC fired 3 Storm Shadow/SCALP EG cruise missiles from the Mediterranean.
- B-1B strategic bombers fired 19 AGM-158 JASSM air-launched cruise missiles.
- British Typhoon and Tornado fighter jets fired 8 Storm Shadow/SCALP EG air-launched cruise missiles.
- French Rafel and Mirage fired 9 Storm Shadow/SCALP EG air-launched cruise missiles.
According to the Pentagon 76 missiles hit “Barzah Research and Development Center”, 22 missiles hit “Him Shinshar Chemical Weapons Storage Site”, 7 missiles hit “Him Shinshar CW Bunker”.
However, during the official briefing the Pentagon declined to provide any evidence confirming the allegations against the Assad government and offered no explanation as to why there was no dispersal of chemical agent clouds if the chemical weapons facilities had been hit.
Another issue raised by experts is why 76 missiles were needed to destroy three buildings in Barzeh.
There is another side to the story. According to the Syrian Defense Ministry, most of the missiles launched by the US-led bloc were intercepted. The Russian Defense Ministry provided more details by saying that Russia had not employed its air defense assets, but 71 missiles heading to 8 locations had been intercepted by the Syrian Air Defense Forces (SADF).
The Russians added that Moscow will also consider deliveries of S-300 air defense systems to Syria and other countries in response to the US actions.
However, the numbers provided by Russia raise serious questions. Some experts contacted by SouthFront said that even theoretically the SADF could not have been capable of shooting down more than 15-20% of the launched missiles. The SADF just does not have the means and measures necessary to intercept such a number of missiles simultaneously in one wave of strikes.
The experts suggested that the Russian military had possibly used its state-of-the-art electronic warfare systems to counter the launched missiles during the final phase of their flight path.
Another factor, which “highly likely” contributed to the effectiveness of the Syrian counter-measures, is that Russia had provided the Syrian military with operational data from its technical reconnaissance net, including satellites and other surveillance means. Likely, Iran had done a similar thing.
Using tracking data, Russian-made air defense systems like S-125, S-200, Buk and Kvadrat are capable of shooting down cruise missiles with a relatively high efficiency.
The 71 intercepted missiles of 103 launched are a decisive failure for the US and its allies. Some experts suggested that the 76 missiles strike on Barzeh announced by the Pentagon could be an attempt to explain where all the missiles had gone.
If the data provided by the Russian Defense Ministry is confirmed, this will be the first time in the history when that a side was able to repel a massive strike of so-called modern high-precision weapons/missiles. If so, in the case of a nuclear exchange between the US and Russia, the Russians will be able to intercept most of the US means of attack while suffering only minor damage, whereas Russia’s nuclear strike would be a crushing blow.
It is a miserable failure, for real. The fake PR victory does not make it a victory. In real real world, you can always turn things around and present your failure as victory. But, failure is just that, a miserable failure no matter how you twist it.
Some people have done a great job how fake the victory is and how many missiles had to be used to destroy dilapidated and empty three buildings, already proclaimed as not used since November of 2017 by international body.
Good. But I question the last assertion. Russia does not have the guaranteed capacity to intercept the huge number of nuclear missiles that would be launched at it in an all out war. Neither does the US of course. MAD still holds, after all these (fortunate) years. Let’s pray that no one is stupid or careless enough to test it.
These numbers of intercepted missiles are from Russian made old weapons Syrians hold.The Russian weapons today are 2-3 generations ahead of them, arguably their current air defense weapons would have intercepted all the missiles.So it’s not a stretch to say Russia inside the borders of the Russian Federation could intercept all incoming nuclear missiles.
MAD may be dead, except in the opposite way than how the Americans intended to get rid of it, ie:- Russia can destroy USA with their old and latest nuclear arsenal, but American nuclear missiles can’t hit Russia(preemptively or as counter-strike).
Nuclear hits by the USA in Russia would be devastating in every single case, even if most could be intercepted.
I asked the question elsewhere but perhaps here someone could get an answer.
According to this article *none* of the 19 BGM-158 JASSM were intercepted
https://reseauinternational.net/quelques-faits-passes-sous-silence-sur-lattaque-tripartite-contre-la-syrie/
In the area of Barzeh, the Russian caim that 7/30 missiles were intercepted, so there wasn’t just JASSM but old tomahawks as well. But 23 _were not_ intercepted according to Russia
If this claim is correct, why is that?
Less robust air-defenses around Barzeh?
No Pantsir, so a JASSM can go through?
Is it possible in your view that some were jammed (but not incercepted)? I’m saying this because 19 missiles for 3 buildings seems a lot, so perhaps there were other targets that were missed..
The fact that the old tomahawks were shot down elsewhere is not surprising, but I wonder if the Russians have anything that can be used against JASSM
It could in fact be that it was not much of air defense in that area and therefore so many missiles could hit Barzeh
If the syrian recover one of those specific cruise missiles broken in two, aka intercepted, I’ll be more reassured. You can’t put a Pansir-S1 at every street corner but the worst case is if one specific type of cruise missile is able to avoid EW jamming an a pantsir in addition
Yes, still it can be a mistake to use such a missile et this stage now by USA, Russia and Syria might learn from this and down some JASSM next time. Never show your best cards too early. That’s why Russia keep their systems quit as much as possible and let Syria do the shooting with old USSR systems
On another page of this site with an update on the strikes we read:
“It is to be stressed that Syrian air defence system was organized on the principle of object defence. Almost all objects protected by air defence systems were unharmed.” /briefing-by-russian-defence-ministry-official-major-general-igor-konashenkov-april-16-2018/
So perhaps no one expected the University research centre to be targeted, and no dedicated defence was provided for?
Russia certainly helped the Syrian forces, but after saying that Russian forces themselves would take down US missiles, it has left them looking somewhat weak and scared to carry out their threats. If Russia itself had used its full abilities, maybe not a single missile would have reached its target. That would be a true humiliation for the westerners led by the USA, who constantly refers to their military superiority against Russia and Iran. Despite personally sympathizing more with the White-Orthodox side of the Russian history, these times draw the mind back to Stalin’s’ command- Ни шагу назад, Not One Step Back. In that decree also were the words-
“Some stupid people at the front calm themselves with talk that we can retreat further to the east, as we have a lot of territory, a lot of ground, a lot of population and that there will always be much bread for us. They want to justify the infamous behavior at the front. But such talk is falsehood, helpful only to our enemies.”
There are a lot of people who say they are pro Russian and whatever, but sound a lot like the people referred to there. They say that this missile attack was ineffective, cost USA millions, didn’t kill anyone, avoided Russian bases etc but this is missing the point. The USA, without any proof of Assad’s’ chemical attacks, or international permission, carried out an act of aggression against a sovereign nation. In fact in reality it was state terrorism, since its effects were primarily intended to demoralize the pro Assad Syrian population into submission. The Jihadists have failed so now the USA has to do the terror itself, directly.
If Russia doesn’t directly intercept the next batch of NATO terrorist missiles, it will be open invitation to let them attack Iran. And Russia will be next in line. Calling for restraint from Russia is “helpful only to the enemy” indeed.
Russia is buying time now. But I agree that it will need to make a firmer response, perhaps in the near future, but that depends on how forceful the Empire’s thrusts become.
I would like Russia and Syria to show some wrecks from shot down missiles. So far I have only seen the wreck from a french missile. That would shut some mouth yelling that every missile did hit its target.
Have you seen any wrecks of yet?
I would really love it if Russia had the capability to shot down 70% of any incoming missiles. However, Tomahawks are hardly state of the art missiles. They have been upgraded since they were introduced in the 70’s, but still, this is a subsonic system with a payload of 450kg. If the madness in Washington DC reaches such height that they start sending missiles into Russia. Then we are talking about ICBMs. S-500 are supposed to be able to intercept supersonic missiles, but let us hope we never find out how effective they are. No such system are 100% effective anyway.
I think that US and its minions can claim this attack to be a great victory. No one, except odd-balls like us, have even heard the claim that Syria intercepted 71 missiles, or if they have, they do not believe it. Everyone believe that the buildings that were destroyed were used to make CWAs, and that they now have deprived Assad of this capacity. So I suppose it would be difficult to stage another chemical attack and blame it on Assad. -Especially since IS/AQ/Al Nusra etc are almost completely surpressed.
This seems to have been a last, desperate attempt into luring US back into the fight against Assad. And that failed.interesting point about Russia providing guidance for the old systems that Syria used. That would be statesmanship at a superb level.
Now, the people behind this attack, London, Paris and Washington, knew well that the building they hit were empty. It was the airfields and other targets that was not hit, that were the real target. So they know it was a failure, we know it, but the MSM grazing sheep does not.
Maybe USA et.al. got a nasty surprise? Maybe they are starting to understand that Russia is a dangerous opponent that should be treated as such? It was a surprise to hear them say that there would be no further attacks when we know that they only managed to hot empty buildings. Maybe they got Russia’s warnings and understood that they could not win this chicken-race. It will be interesting to see what happens next!
Yes. As in the Chinese curse, “may you live in interesting times!”.
this is definitely NOT THE LAST,no ,no ,not even by a miniscle scale chance ,there will be more bullying by the west,anybody who think that 900 billion budget of the hegemon is for peaceful purpose is kidding themselves and others.West spends more on killing others than the rest of the world.Who is their enemy?…anybody who does not jump when they say jump.
Yes. Exactly.
They certainly do make a lot of noise and try to look powerful/tough like they just did, but the truth is the American military has never fought an near-equal opponent, much less a superior one and it’s not because there are/were no military equal or superior to them, but because Americans tend to be cowards(bullies usually are).And also despite their supposed military might they always go to war hiding behind a pack – even in this attack they were too scared to hit Syria without UK and France.
Even in your comment you had to point out at the American military budget, as if that was a measure of military strength on the battlefield, but then again that’s all the USA military has got.
There is another figure of blocked missiles – 79. If it’s true that Russian state-of-the-art electronic warfare system really have blocked about 60 (or even more) missiles this is nightmare for NATO. The Russian blocking network is far from 100% over Syria. I’d really wonder what generals of Pentagon are really thinking now. Perhaps just their luxury life – no more no less.
Missile defenses are expensive to operate and always limited in their capacity. And the Empire has huge stocks of missiles and delivery systems: they can overcome Russia’s limited capacities with massive attacks. Then Russia must go nuclear or be flattened. Putin has made clear that he would go to nukes if the future of Russia was in doubt due to “conventional” attacks.
Between defensive missiles and offensive missiles, the defensive one’s have the advantage, they need less range and explosives which makes them lighter,faster and cheaper than offensive missiles.On the other hand EW doesn’t need ammo and can practically be used indefinitely, regardless of how many missiles the enemy has.
30 cruiser missiles with average 450 kilos explosives might sound something devastating but in reality it’s just 13.5 tons. In Vietnam US bombed average 1 570 tons every day – and lost the war. And though US 8th Air Force made some excellent job when decimating Nazi German synthetic fuel production (mostly for Luftwaffe needs) it happened late in May – June 1944 when Nazis had already lost the war – in Eastern Front bloody land warfare.
I’ll recommend everyone study military history before too much falling in love with idea of techno air warfare magic solving all military problems. Air power hype is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
(excluding nuclear war of course)
Trump just stated at a press conference that every single missile hit its target. He had to delay the comment slightly because crowd was too loud due to John Bolton getting a standing ovation.
That seriously just happened. I think it might have been a partisan crowd. I almost puked.
Flt out lies come naturally to Trump. They have become an important part of his gaslighting strategy on the Sleepy American public.
Videos are beginning to emerge showing the Syrian AA systems in action, this video is the most interesting:
https://youtu.be/CDkGS3zD20o
The tomahawk missle cluster looks terrifying (launched from grouped ships or B1B), yet the AA system looks as if it handled it. It seems that this might also have been a saturation/overload test.
There are also reports coming in about “overloaded” Russian ships passing the Bosphorus. Resupplies and new AA systems?
“However, during the official briefing the Pentagon ….. offered no explanation as to why there was no dispersal of chemical agent clouds if the chemical weapons facilities had been hit.”
——————-
It was their analysis and intelligence planning!
So they blew up the buildings with a chance of chemicals leaking out.
Mad Dog Mattis said so: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np-WISd0bsI at 13:15
Odd thing about that was …. nobody questioned it.
Word is just breaking on RT of a new missile strike against Syria. This time it looks to be another Israeli attack (the US denies it was a US attack). Its time that the Russians provide the Syrians with updated defense systems (not just talk about it). And offensive missiles as well. And inform Israel that the next time they attack ,they will feel a counter-strike on their soil.Even more than the US,the Israelis need to know the days of them hitting Syria without retaliation are over for good.
https://www.rt.com/news/424333-syria-missiles-defense-homs/
> “The Russians added that Moscow will also consider deliveries of S-300 air defense systems to Syria and other countries in response to the US actions.”
why isn’t delivery of S-300 air defense systems automatic .. why is it merely a consideration? This seems like a message to the Empire that it will permit another assault on Syria before Russia will provide the S-300.
It’s not automatic because Syria and Israel are still at war – have been since 1967. I suspect Russia doesn’t want Syria to shoot down so many Israeli aircraft that Israel goes all out against Syria, and then the US has an excuse to go all out. Russia is trying to keep Syria together AND avoid WWIII.
It was just the beginning, WW3 is a near certainty, they (US, EU, Zionists, Military-Media-Banking-Corporate-Oil&Gas-Industrial complex MMBCOIC) cannot stop, won’t stop (unless multiple, unpredictable and complex environmental feedbacks cause a catatrophic disruption of fragile globalized agroindustrial networks in the exceptionnalists bloc first, highly unlikely in the next few years).
No way we will avoid brutal world war, according to a close contact with expertise in intl relations, public policy and a foot in western europe (a swamp of vicious, old school exceptionnalists) the other foot among the “elites” of the arab “world” (a swamp of delusional, spineless neocolonized creatures).
My own non-professional opinion is
A) best case scenario: military coup by remaining non corrupt officers and/or successfull uprising in the US, France, UK plus post-apartheid Palestine and implosion of KSA help creating conditions for multiporal order. Global capitalist elites are pushed back, from Beijing to Cape Town. Homo sapiens mitigate environmental disaster by combining socialist 2.0 with managed degrowth and decoupling (from globalisation madness) in the west, limited growth and socialism 2.0 among BRICS with full cooperation of the euro-american bloc (international order, multilateralism) followed by no growth, growth in poorest nations with socialism 2.0 then slowing down and no growth. All that with massive war-time investment in relocating some major cities that will be flooded in coming decades, massive infrastructure adaptation etc. Of course it will never happen, the sytem cannot allow homo sapiens to evolve and survive so we will go for one of the two following option:
B) Slow escalation caused by euro/US/Zionist radicalization, relative inertia (for complex reasons) from Russia and China, ending in hot WW3 and probable nuclear exchange (followed by long winter plus radioactives nanoparticules inhaled, ingested worlwide, bioaccumulation in any surviving food chain etc.) ending all complex life forms on earth. (Some insects and western journalists will survive, being simple spineless life forms)
C) Mass extinction of most complex life forms caused by anthropogenic factors remains unchallenged by “homo systemis” for whom the most primitive form of coping with change, denial, became the only aceptable social norm in this globalized capitalist and imperialist madness. After a few decades of global inaction (caused primarly by the west rejection of multipolarity and by all global elites psychotic denial of reality), the loss of biological habitat (soil, water, stable climate) mixed with the extreme vulnerability of this complex, globalized, highly unequal and short-sighted economy, causes unraveling of food production, loss of vital calories with cascading consequences for social order, vital infrastructures, rising national/international tensions, nuclear power plants and nuclear waste facilities are the last to be abandonned and remaining life forms are altered beyond recognition.
Anyway biological death is our future, the important thing is to try to act morally, struggle for future generations, during a spiritually rewarding life, in a quest for justice and truth. And accept the inevitable death, thanking God Almighty for this present, life in us and all around us.
I would like to remind readers that in 2017 Trump attacked that Syrian military airfield. Two volleys of missiles were used, both of 30 Tomahawks. In the first volley, one Tomahawk misfired, while the remaining 29 Tomahawks were intercepted by the Russian Khibir electronics jamming system and directed away. The US Navy fired a second volley. This time the Russians did not interfere, wanting to see the efficiency of the Tomahawks. Not one struck the runways. Yes, five old Syrian planes were hit in the hangers, as they were being serviced and could not be flown away. The other missiles struck the dirt around the runways, or else struck villages, killing civilians.
There was no doubt the Russians knew what to expect in this latest attack. Basically old Tomahawk cruise missiles. They repeated the same tactics from 2017. The Syrians shot down some cruise missiles, while the Russians intercepted a heap of others with the Khibir. The damage to Syria was minimal.
If you analyze the US, UK and French performance, then the obvious question which needs to be raised is why 103 cruise missiles were used to destroy a couple of buildings. The answer is simple: The Pentagon knew what to expect, namely the involvement of the Russian military with it’s electronics. This is why so many missiles were used.
Perhaps it’s a good thing this attack did happen. Now both NATO and the Pentagon know the quality of Russian high tech. Analysts are already stating that the actual attack was humiliating for the Pentagon, as the results were poor. The fact that the Russians did not use the S-300 and S-400 missile systems is a further humiliation for the Pentagon. They did not need to use them.
While the US was bombing country after country the Russians went to work using there brains a classic tale! The US will now have to give up there Hegemony or die trying to keep it. What will it be boy’s?