Update on Israel/Syria Air Incident

As you know, I reported yesterday on an incident where Syria had fired on Israeli jets flying over Syrian air space. I speculated at the time that the Israelis likely had been flying over Syria in order to recon the Syrian missile buildup and probe Syrian air defenses now that the Russians have sold them all that new hardware.

It appears I was right, and moreover that this may have been coordinated with the US.

Apparently the entire idea was to test out the new Russian Pantsyr-S1E radar and fire control systems and the accompanying Pantsyr-S1E missiles, which the Russians have supplied to both Syria and Iran.

The new systems have been touted by the Russians as `invulnerable to jamming ' and foolproof....but that's exactly what the Israeli air force was able to do, causing the missiles to veer way off target, which is why the Israeli planes weren't downed.

I'd bet that this was a test run for the benefit of both Israel and the US. The Israeli flights over the Pantsyr-S1E sits showed that the new systems are activated and a force to be reckoned with but that they can be jammed and rendered ineffective by new electronic jamming systems, which also got a test run. The flights also showed the location and effectiveness of the new Russian systems and how they can be overcome, something that would be vital to any US planning on an attack on Iran.

It must have been a real nail biter. The planes needed to go in and perform maneuvers in hostile airspace under fire long enough to throughly test both the Pantsyr-S1E responses and the new electronic jamming systems, and only a bunch of amazingly brave and skilled pilots could have pulled it off.

Their success demonstrated to Syria and Iran that those expensive new Russian anti-air systems are not the cure all defense against attack they thought they were.

The Russians reacted typically. Understanding that the Pantsyr-S1E sytems had failed to down the Israeli planes, they were quick to officially deny selling these systems to Syria or Iran...even though they had admitted selling them to Syria and Iran previously!

They also made an official call for Israel to `respect international law'. In other words, the Russians were giving Israel a warning in diplo-speak against attacking the Russian-made missile installations where Russian instructors are busily working to train the Syrians.