{UAH} RUSSIA DELIVERS A HIGH-TECH SHOCK TO WEST AND ISRAEL

War in Syria: Russia’s 'rustbucket' military delivers a hi-tech shock to West and Israel

As the Kremlin showcases its military capabilities in Syria, Kim Sengupta says Nato leaders are having to reassess

• Kim Sengupta
• Saturday 30 January 2016 10:04 BST
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n Su-24 bomber – which has its origins in the late 1960s – lands at Hemeimeem air base in Syria

Their army’s equipment and strategy was “outmoded”; their air force’s bombs and missiles were “more dumb than smart”; their navy was “more rust than ready”. For decades, this was Western military leaders’ view, steeped in condescension, of their Russian counterparts. What they have seen in Syria and Ukraine has come as a shock. 

Russian military jets have, at times, been carrying out more sorties in a day in Syria than the US-led coalition has done in a month. The Russian navy has launched ballistic missiles from the Caspian Sea 900 miles way, and kept supply lines going to Syria. The air defences installed by the Russians in Syria and eastern Ukraine would make it extremely hazardous for the West to carry out strikes against the Assad regime or Ukrainian separatists.

Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, the commander of the US army in Europe, has described Russian advances in electronic warfare in Syria and Ukraine – a field in which they were typically supposed to be backward – as “eye watering”.

 

 

EM

On the 49^th Parallel          

                 Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
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                    Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
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