Russian Air and Space Force may allow Israel to attack Hezbollah and Iranian targets in Syria; however, they take a different approach when it comes to the Syrian Arab Army.
The Russian Military have put their S-400 air defense system on alert in Syria to deal with potential Israeli Air Force (IAF) F-35I and F-16I air strikes inside the country, defense analyst and author Babak Taghvaee said on Twitter on Sep. 20, 2019.
According to Taghvaee, the Russian Air and Space Force (RuASF) may allow Israel to attack Hezbollah and Iranian targets in Syria; however, they take a different approach when it comes to the Syrian Arab Army (SAA).
He also highlighted the most recent incidents in which Russian jets reportedly blocked Israeli warplanes from bombing Syria on Sep. 18 and 19.
Actually, Russian military have taken a more aggressive approach to these airstrikes.
On Sep. 10 in fact the Russia threatened to bring down the Israeli warplanes using their own fighter jets or their S-400 system.
Furthermore RuASF jet fighters have been reported to have intercepted and blocked IAF fighter bombers from conducting airstrikes in areas where the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) is present.
In particular, the RuASF has dispatched their Su-35 aircraft to areas where Israeli warplanes are reported to be targeting; this has allegedly prevented the latter from carrying out their strikes.
However as already reported it seems that Russian S-300 and S-400 air defense systems are unable to detect IAF F-35I Adir stealth fighters flying over Damascus.
The Israeli news outlet NZIV in fact published the flight route of the Israeli stealth fighters, that struck eastern Syria. As it turned out, the IAF F-35s, not only entered the Syrian airspace, but also flew for almost several hundred kilometers over the area covered by Russian S-400 and Syrian S-300 air defense systems.
Russian fighters too didn’t attempt to intercept Israel’s F-35s. This may suggest that Russian stealth detection systems failed or did not work properly.
Noteworthy Avia.pro, that cited an anonymous source, recently reported that Russia has allowed Syria to use the S-300 missile defense system against Israeli warplanes.
Furthermore South Front says SAA may soon receive the BAVAR-373 Iranian air defense system that Iran is marketing as able to detect stealth targets, potentially including the Israeli F-35 fighter jets and the US F-22 air superiority fighters, at distances up to 150-180 kilometers.
Neither Israel nor Russia has commented on these claims, but reports surfaced shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seem to suggest that Moscow refused to allow Tel Aviv free reign over Syria’s airspace.
Photo credit: Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation and U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv via Wikipedia
