April 5, 2019 - 10:27 AMT
Syria activated S-300 system during Israeli attack on Aleppo: report

The Syrian military allegedly activated their S-300 air defense system during the Israeli attack on Aleppo last week, the Militaryarms.RU publication claimed, citing Debka File as their source, Al-Masdar News says.

“On the night of March 27th, the Israeli Air Force launched an airstrike on targets in the suburbs of Syria’s Aleppo using F-35 fighters. The Syrian air defense system and, in particular, the Russian-developed air defense missile systems were unable to fix their approach, and even more so, to down the air targets,” the report said.

“Based on data of the Israeli approach to bomb the target, as well as the technical capabilities of the Russian S-300’s radar, it can be concluded that the Israeli fighters did not enter the zone of confident detection and, even more, evaded the SAM systems,” the publication alleged, adding that the “F-35 fighters in this sortie were equipped with the guided bombs GBU-39.”

While th publications claim that the Syrian military activated their S-300 system, the Avia.Pro news site alleged that both the Syrian and Russian air defenses failed to track the Israeli warplanes.

“Despite the failure to protect Syrian airspace, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has not yet answered why the same radar for the Syrian S-300s could not detect the Israeli aircraft,” the publication claimed, citing ‘experts’ on the reasoning.

They would add that not even the Russian military at the Hmeimim Airbase in southwest Latakia was able to track the Israeli warplanes, despite possessing the military technology.

However, a source from the Syrian military told Al-Masdar shortly after the attack last week that their air defense units used their S-200 missiles to attempt to repel the assault.

While the Syrian military does possess the S-300 air defense system, a source told Al-Masdar in mid-March that they are still undergoing training to use this weapon in combat-related operations.