Syrian defences failed in strike
WASHINGTON: Syria’s once wellregarded air defence system completely failed to defend against the USled strike on the country’s chemical weapons facilities last week, highlighting how far the regime’s military has declined, according to the Pentagon and military analysts.
The Syrians fired 40 interceptor missiles, but most of them did not get off the ground until allied missiles had already hit their targets, Pentagon officials said. ‘‘Nearly every one was launched after the last of our missiles hit their targets,’’ Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said.
The failure highlights how ineffective Syria’s military has become and the degree to which it now depends on Russia and Iran, its principal sponsors, for security, Christopher Kozak, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, said.
US, French and British forces launched 105 missiles from aircraft and ships, at three chemical weapons facilities in Syria last weekend, in response to a chemical weapons attack launched by the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Russia claimed that Syrian defences knocked down many incoming missiles, but the Pentagon said every weapon hit its intended target, dismissing the Russian comments as a disinformation campaign.
Syria is equipped with a rela tively sophisticated air defence system, but a lack of training, command and control and other human factors are probably responsible for the failure, analysts said.
‘‘It’s not just about the physical capability of the air defence system,’’ David Deptula, a retired, threestar Air Force general, said.
‘‘It’s about the people who are operating the system.’’
The Pentagon was careful to acknowledge that Russian’s own air defence system in Syria, which is far more sophisticated than the Assad regime’s, was not deployed against the US attack.
The Russian military passively tracked the incoming missiles on their radar as they blew up the three chemical weapons facilities targeted by the US. French and British missiles.
Assad’s military employs the older Russianbuilt S200 air defence system, a network of radar and groundtoair missiles that was first designed in the 1960s.
Syria may also have the more modern Pantsir system, which is designed to defend individual bases or facilities and does not have the range to cover the entire country.
Syria’s recent successes in retaking territory is largely the result of help from Russian air power, and Iranian ground troops.