Syria's S-300 'sticks' to Russia's S-400 to avoid being destroyed?
Satellite images show that the S-300 air defense missile system that Russia delivered to Syria is stationed right next to their S-400 system.
In recent days, the most attention-grabbing aspect of the Syrian battlefield situation is still the possible confrontation in the near future between the Israeli Air Force's F-35I Adir stealth fighter and the S-300 long-range air defense missile system that Russia provided to its ally Damascus.
For the parties involved, the Israeli Air Force is said to be actively planning a preemptive strike to destroy the S-300 system in the hands of the Syrian government army, while actively conducting reconnaissance to clearly understand the deployment location of this weapon.
On the other hand, the Syrian air defense force is actively training to make state-of-the-art combat vehicles under the direct guidance of Russian military experts to quickly reach combat readiness.
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| The position of Syria's S-300PM-2 is right next to Russia's S-400 |
Recently, the Israeli Ministry of Defense provided photos taken by the country's military satellites, in which they identified the locations where the Syrian air defense forces deployed S-300PM complexes (upgraded to the S-300PM-2 standard).
Based on reconnaissance results, the Israeli side discovered an S-300PM-2 complex of the Syrian Army deployed near Masyaf in Hama province with a full complement of four self-propelled launchers, a command station, and functional radar stations.
However, what made the Israeli Air Force "panic" was that the Syrian S-300PM-2's stationing position could be said to be right next to the Russian S-400 complex, an estimated distance of only 1.5 - 2 km.
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| The S-400 long-range air defense missile system deployed by Russia in Syria |
The Syrian Army's deployment of its S-300 systems in a "sticky" manner to Russia's S-400 is considered to be aimed at taking advantage of the protection of its allies while it has not yet mastered the equipment to be able to operate independently.
If the Israeli Air Force wants to destroy the S-300PM-2 "in the bud" as they claimed, they will have to send fighter jets to approach the location and then launch a large number of anti-aircraft missiles at the above location.
But because the S-300 and S-400 are deployed so close together, the Russians certainly have a reason to launch interceptor missiles in this case, because according to their argument, there is no guarantee that the bombs and shells that the Israeli Air Force drops will be able to identify which are Russian targets and which are Syrian.
On the Israeli side, they also have to be cautious when launching such an attack because the risk of causing casualties to Russian soldiers is very high, which will then ignite a new diplomatic crisis while the incident related to the Il-20 electronic reconnaissance aircraft has not yet been settled properly.
Placing the S-300PM-2 next to the S-400 can be considered a temporary solution for the Syrian Army, but in the long run, they still have to separate from the S-400 umbrella to deploy to protect important facilities, this is when Israeli fighters can take action.
