Russia shot down 17 militant drones.
According to Southfront, Russian air defense forces in Syria claim to have shot down 17 rebel drones of various types, including weaponized ones.
Sources citing a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense said that the downed drones were the result of a three-month operation by Russian air defense forces deployed in Syria.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stated at the Moscow Conference on Global Security on April 4th that among the downed drones, some had a range of up to 100km. "Creating such drones would be impossible for the opposition without external support," Sergei Shoigu emphasized.
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| Pantsir-S1 system. |
Speaking about the weapon that carried out this series of downed targets, Sergei Shoigu said that the majority of targets were taken down by strikes from the Pantsir-S1 system deployed at Hmeymim.
Furthermore, military sources revealed that since the beginning of 2017 alone, Russian Pantsir-S1 air defense systems in Syria have repeatedly fired missiles to destroy 13 airborne targets deemed dangerous by Russia, all of them.
Two of those targets, likely balloon-like objects, were shot down near the missile's maximum range within a few days in June of this year, in the airspace over two Russian military bases in Syria: the Tartus naval operational base and the Hmeymim permanent air base.
The Russian military suspects these spheres may have been equipped with devices to monitor the internal workings and structures of Russian bases. Four of the targets destroyed by the Pantsir-S1 were artillery shells and rocket launchers located in the Hmeymim and Masyaf base areas in Hama province.
The remaining targets destroyed were seven drones, including a Turkish-made Bayraktar UAV shot down near the Tartus base in late 2017, and an unidentified small drone shot down in the Masyaf area around the same time.
Israel had four Heron reconnaissance UAVs shot down near the Tartus and Masyaf bases in April, May, and July 2017, and an unidentified UAV was shot down on September 22nd, when Israeli fighter jets attacked Damascus International Airport.
Additionally, a US RQ-21A Blackjack UAV was shot down near Tartus on May 27th.
The fact that the Pansir-S1 shot down all suspicious targets in Syrian airspace shows that Russian air defenses are highly vigilant and ready to shoot down any targets they deem dangerous or illegally present in Syrian airspace.
