"Syria needs 10-12 S-300 divisions to protect..." Topic

… its airspace – Russian general.

""Judging by the size of Syria's territory, they will require 10-12 S-300 divisions, which would guarantee protection of the country," he said. The availability of this potential would make the task of declaring a no-fly zone over Syria almost impossible, he added.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview with Lebanon's Al-Manar television station that the first batch of Russian S-300 missile systems had already arrived in Syria.…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

I suspect they will get them soon, rather than later, given Putin's stance on Syria.

Probably before the guy gets his ring, or a close facsimile, back.

How much of the country to they have to defend to put western countries off an attack? We have a very low tolerance for planes being hit.

At a billion dollars per plane… low tolerance indeed.

Scary thing is if these weapons are coming then the US and company may hit sooner rather than later. I know I would. Hit them fast and very hard to make sure that these weapons never get up and functional. I think that it is rubbish that any SAM can completely deterr an allied attack, but at the same time it only take a few shot down planes to cause serious problems. It's not like the US has entire wings of B-17s where losing 20-30 a mission is part of the game. Now warplanes are so expensive that a 3-4 million dollar missile can knock down a $500 USD million+ jet, or (shudder), a billion dollar stealth bird…

Jeeze, I still can't get over that. A billion dollar bomber. I would be scared senseless every time that machine left the hanger!!!

That's one nervous valet.

Since the 1973 War, Syrian air defense has a less than stellar record of performance.

The Israelis have learned how to deal with it quite well, and have no doubt shared that info with us.

I suspect a lot of armed drones, and/or cruise missiles will be used to "sanitize" the Syrian air defenses, should the decision be made to do that.

If we're lucky, the Israelis will take care of the S-300s for us, since they don't like the thought of those posing a threat to their pilots, and/or their ability to fly at will over Syrian territory to take out other targets, as needed.

The only drones that would be remotely useful against an IADS are the IAI Harop and similar aircraft.

I suspect that after the first wave, it won't be very integrated, or effective, given historical precedents.

The Russians are on notice that Israel is going to take out their allies in the region sooner or later. The Russians must have been busy building weapons systems which they know are going to be needed by their allies (S-300s etc.) It takes a long time to produce these weapons. But sooner or later they, and whatever the Russians can free from stock/mothballs, will start being loaded on Antonovs, or ships, and heading out to the region.

My guess is that the rush to escalate the conflict is to take out Lebanon/Iran/Syria before the Russians can intervene.