The Russian pro-government media outlet RIAFAN has released a series of photos showing Syria’s T4 airbase after the last night missile strike, which had been conducted by Israeli forces.
According to RIAFAN, no damage was delivered to the runway or aircraft in the airbase. The media outlet speculated that Israel had been aiming to target Iranian forces, which were located in the western part of the airbase. However, it looks that the Israelis were not able to achieve their goal.
Photos released by RIAFAN:
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Yeah looks like a very unsuccessful IAF strike! looks like they just hit bare land, bit of runway
Yes, very true. However, now the SAA and allies will lie and say some have been killed in order to increase tensions and pressure on Israel. Same thing they did when the US struck the base. They informed Russia 1 hour before and Russia evacuated everyone but still said 9 people died. I hope Russia bombs Israel.
Exactly the same type of annoying mess after the Yanks shot those 59 tomahawks.
Little by little, they are showing the World that they really are the Emperor’s without clothes.
To me, the damage pictured it looks like they did manage to hit two, maybe three aircraft shelters. That would be consistent with three of the eight making it to T4. I assume the photographer was trying to get pictures of new damage (T4 has been hit many times in the past).
The bare iron rebar is part of the very top of the concrete arch roof or ceiling of the shelter. The concrete damage looks different in pictures #2 and #6, so possibly different shelters. The third picture shows a hole in the earthen side of a shelter and a squarish-looking opening in the concrete, but no damage to the three concrete arch roof edges on either end. The deeply-cut grooves on the side look like erosion in the loosened earth covering after some past attack, but may just be the way it blows out. Or it was some kind of existing cutaway/door in the side of the shelter, and the photographer isn’t showing the earth damage, but the missing door. Hard to say on that one.
I doubt these were any kind of missiles. Israel’s glide bombs – similar to US JSOW – come in 250/1000/2000 lb. variants. Each Israeli F-15s can carry a couple of dozen Spice 250 glide bombs, but they’re probably saving those. Yesterday’s attack supposedly used 4 ‘missiles’ per F-15I, so my guess is that they used a Spice guidance kits on four Mk 83 1000 lb. bombs per F-15I. The Spice 1000 has a 50 mile/100km standoff range – plenty if the Israeli jets were over Lebanon. Too bad the Syrians didn’t bag one while it was sneaking back to base.
Spice kits are expensive and complex. They can be ‘flown’ real-time in the terminal phase by the back-seater using the guidance kit’s optical or IR imager. Seems odd that they would ever drop more than one per aircraft at a time because you can only fly one. I suppose they could be staggered a half-minute or so, giving the WSO time to link to and fly the next one in. The bombs can fly themselves to one of the many pre-programmed targets using GPS or internal nav., but that’s kind of a waste of a Spice kit. The whole point of the attack was to hit ‘something’ in the shelters – either Syrian MiG-25s or maybe new SAM systems/equipment in storage. The Spice manual optical/IIR guidance link lets you pick which one of the two sides of the shelters to target in case one is empty.
Good commentary PW! ……..thanks!
Ι second that!
Glide bombs would require F-15s to penetrate Syrian airspace at altitude, and thereby risk losing the birds. Zios won’t do that, so they’ll use stand-off missiles and attack from inside Lebanese airspace as usual.
This attack has been rather pissweak… if this is the best the IAF can muster, its hardly a threat.
True if going by Rafael’s 100 km claimed range, which is the closest section of the Lebanese border to T-4. But it turns out I was wrong about the F-15I even using Spice bombs. The IAF just got them operational on their older model (non-Sufa) F-16 C/Ds last month and is still working on their F-16I and F-15Is to use Spice.
This brings up another interesting issue, though. Russia should have easily known about the Israeli aircraft, but apparently did not. Maybe Israel just planted the F-15 story to cover up another false flag provocation.
Israel already tried this back in July and September of 2013 in an attempt to get Russia to attack the US Navy off the coast of Syria. The July attack was from an Israeli sub firing a turbo Popeye that supposedly destroyed a warehouse of Russian P-800s in Latakia. The September attack was also by an Israeli sub launching a couple of turbo Popeyes, but that one was from far out in the east Mediterranean and damn near overflew the Arleigh Burke guided missile destroyer. The Arleigh Burke shot both of them down and claimed it was just some kind of a test. The entire story was fishy but quickly forgotten.
A more skeptical-minded person might conclude that Israel was trying to make Russia think the Arleigh Burke was firing cruise missiles at them, provoking a retaliatory strike. The Russians were probably still pissed about the July attack and were ready to defend themselves with the rest of their P-800s. The Arleigh Burke wasn’t necessarily defending the Russians, it was just preventing Israel from starting WWIII. The Arleigh Burke would have been the first P-800 target.
Now we have Popeyes fired by invisible F-15I’s? Right after another false-flag CW attack that the US vowed to respond to – presumably with Tomahawks? Russia has threatened not only to shoot down the cruise missiles, but also ‘neutralize’ the launching platforms – like guided missile destroyers? That would explain the ‘pissweak attack’ – it wasn’t intended to do much damage. Maybe it was designed to provoke a Russian retaliatory response against the US Navy?
Its a bluster attack – to prove to their public they are brave enough to still attack Iran after the Persians wiped the floor with their faces shooting down their F16.
Nice to read a post from somebody who knows what’s going on. Makes this site valuable.
Thanks, but I have no earthly idea what is going on in Syria. I just guess like everyone else. Too many governments have too much at stake to tell the little people the truth. That said, the Russians have far less motivation or inclination to lie than the US government & it’s criminal psychopathic cronies in the Coalition of Evil. The US has all the credibility of used-car salesmen.
The problem is that SAA has not enough PantSir-S and S-2. Russia should deliver more PantSir to SAA that can defense itself.
S300 and Pantsir in combination are a pretty good combination . Latest models even more scary . The odd S400 thrown in would make it impossible for the Israelis or Americans to do any damage .
It’s not impossible to do any damage. Just impossible to do so unscathed. The myth of western air superiority and power projection would be destroyed or at least heavily damaged. Even Pakistan nowadays could make multirole warplanes of F16 and F18 class and the rest of developing country could develop or procure such hardware less expensively and they’re no longer have to buy it from western coalition. The technological gaps are closing as well it’s monopoly on them. Hegemony is fast passing it’s primetime.
At last we can see that aircraft are no longer being parked in neat rows that military men seem to love all over the globe :)
Bravo.
I don’t think that has been the case since the 6 Days Wars, when that practice allowed the IAF to take out whole Arab air forces with a single fly by. Aircraft dispersal and hardened bunkers have been the norm ever since. Especially in Arab countries like Syria were it happened. And who I assume with the constant Israeli attacks, and the treat of US strikes, dispersal should be the norm.
Pretty expensive Fireworks if you ask me…
Last night strike were to trigger the RU or SyAF retaliation response.
It looks Like Israhell & the U.S. are pretty scared and aware of Retalliation…considering the Damage they cause…they probably Called the Russians again before they attacked…
Israhell trying to act like the hard man,when all they are doing is making bigger idiots of themselves,just like their zionist idiot cousins in little Britain, Boris the village idiot,France, moran, Germany, Merkel, and the liar in chief ,small hands trumps. Nut and yahoo is going crazy to get the stupid goyim to fight his wars for him,but israhell will pay a heavy price if he provokes war with Russia.
These stand off missile hits…..which appear misses as per early reporting. I’m considering that Syrian Airdefence may have area Jamming ability. Point defence usually hits/detonates … There is the case for deflection and non targeting det of missile damaged by proximity hit. Question arrives at to impact trajectory untouched…or off target via jamming or damage from proximity hit.
It would be great news SAA have area Jamming + point defence.
T4 is inland airbase vs outskirts Damascus which Israhell has hit repeatedly over the years. The vector track on T 4 stand off strike gives SAA point defence some lead time to respond. SAA radar would have this telemetry. Russian Radar can detect IAF jets taking off in Israel.
The best respond is not to destroy 5/8 missiles, the best way to respond is to take the same action against those who did this… Syria doesn’t have much to lose, it is already destroyed country and few more missiles can’t harm at all ..but few missiles on the ”other side” means a lot…
2 SAF planes stranded in the middle of a desert. Where is the actual airbase?
From all I have read, this missile strike on this Air-Base was agreed, personally between Donny, psychopath Bolton, Israel & Mohammed bin Salman.
Syria has every right to hit back..
Yes it does buf wont because it knows it will make things worse. However,there may come a time when the Syrian people say FuckIt!!! And unleash all hell on invaders like isisreal!
I think in my opinion that there were no personal there…Russia would have been warned…but in these cases SAA and allies increase the casualties to press Russia because the purpose of SAA and allies is to respond to that attacks with Bastion P system or Smerch MRLS….meanwhile wetern sources increase casualties to discredit Russia as a protector of their allies!
So the Israelis lost 5 out of the 8 missiles. Believe me that will be a fairly severe punishment. The murderous bullies have always believed that their military capability was unstoppable by ‘riff raff’ like Syria – that Israel was master of the universe. That they were untouchable and invincible. They have had a huge blow Lost a fighter so they dare not enter Syria by looks of things and now only 3 missiles got through and didn’t do a lot. Its actually a humiliation and all credit to the Syrian teams who downed the other 5. Good for you lads. Good tally – you saved a lot of people and stuck the Israelis right where it hurts – their credibility, military might and even and their defenses which can be questioned.
I don’t understand Russian S-400 in Khmeimim base have the range to shoot down those IDF Zionistic Jets while take off from the runway, why Russia just don’t shoot few while they are crossing Lebanese/Syrian border they can have every excuse after, like the IDF does it with excuses, we are protecting our territory our baese etc. well the Russians can say the same, and Lebanon don’t have any air defense at all, even S-Iglas will do the job while the IDF fly low over lebanon.
Why provoke Uncle Sam or the Israelis? The SAA, with Russian, Iraqi (PMUs) and Iranian help, is winning the civil war. In a few weeks all the head choppers near Damascus will be crushed. Already most of Syria’s population lives in areas controlled by the Syrian government. Absent a prolonged air campaign by Uncle Sam or ground intervention, which would be hard to justify in the US, Syria will soon begin the task of rebuilding. Lots of folks around the world will have a stake in that. And roads from Aleppo and Damascus to Baghdad, Tehran and points beyond will be open. Ta’ish Suria!
This was an attack that targeted Iran. Okay, so Lebanon’s airspace was violated as it always is and missiles flew over Syria’s airspace but the objective was to provoke Iran and Hezbollah into firing back at Israel. Why? To try and bundle together any conflict between Syria and the “coalition” with a fight against Hezbollah and Iran. Reasons: Iran is too big and Hezbollah too troublesome for Israel to take on alone. And distractions are really helpful to Israel right now, what with too many conversations around the World about the slaughter of unarmed Palestinian protesters. Plus, the fact that the current Israeli leadership is mired in corruption scandals. The Syrian Alliance of Russia, Iran, Hezbollah and Damascus need to defend themselves sure but stay focused on putting the insurgency down, for good. Settle up with Israel later and keep both fights apart from one another.
Looks just as destroyed as before. :D :D