Israel confirms: Syria activates S-300 but does not dare to shoot down F-35I
Debka newspaper quoted an Israeli military source as revealing that during the airstrike on Aleppo on March 27, the Syrian S-300 system switched to combat mode but did not dare to fire.
The attack by Israel's F-35I squadron in late March destroyed many targets in the suburbs of Aleppo while the Israeli fighter jets safely returned to base despite having to fly a record long distance.
Although no missiles were launched from the Syrian S-300 system, Israel detected that the S-300 air defense system had switched to combat status but did not dare to fire.
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| S-300 air defense system |
According to Debka, there are two main reasons why Syria only used other air defense systems to repel the Israeli airstrike, not the S-300. The first reason is that these S-300 systems detected the Israeli fighter jets but were unable to lock on and attack.
Because between detecting, locking on to the target and firing are completely different problems. Especially with the current situation of the Syrian combat crew, that is very difficult.
However, in the second situation, Debka believes that the fact that the S-300 has switched to combat mode but not fired may be due to the Damascus government's own consideration of the pros and cons.
Because they know very well what the consequences would be if they hit an F-35I. Meanwhile, the targets attacked belonged to forces other than the Syrian government. Currently, Syria has not officially responded to the comments made by Israel.
It is known that exactly one day before Israel talked about Syria changing the combat status of the S-300, MilitaryArms.Ru quoted a statement from the Israeli Air Force admitting that the F-35I stealth fighter was attacked during an airstrike on Aleppo, but it was not an S-300 interceptor.
No shells hit the Israeli aircraft. According to a Syrian military source obtained by MilitaryArms.Ru, despite the failure to attack the F-35I, Syrian air defense missiles still shot down a number of the Israeli fighter jets' attack missiles.
Responding to this information, Israel denied it because the weapon this force used was the GBU-39 small diameter bomb, which is very modest in size.
Therefore, intercepting this type of bomb requires ground forces with sophisticated equipment and experienced combat crews - factors that Israel believes are absent in Syria's air defenses.
