Image: Aleksey Peslyak / TASS
A US Poseidon-8 reconnaissance plane operated unmanned aerial vehicles that attacked Russia’s Hmeymim airbase in Syria, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Colonel General Alexander Fomin said at a plenary session of the Beijing Xiangshan Forum on security on October 25.
“Thirteen drones moved according to common combat battle deployment, operated by a single crew. During all this time the American Poseidon-8 reconnaissance plane patrolled the Mediterranean Sea area for eight hours,” Colonel General Alexander stated, according to TASS.
“When these 13 drones faced our electronic warfare screen, they moved away to some distance, received the corresponding orders and began to be operated out of space and receiving help in finding the so-called holes through which they started penetrating. Then they were destroyed.“
The deputy defense minister emphasized that the drones, which met with the electronic countermeasures, switched to a manual guidance mode.
“Manual guidance is carried out not by some villagers, but by the Poseidon-8, which has modern equipment. It undertook manual control,” Colonel General Fomin said. “This should be stopped as well: in order to avoid fighting with the high-technology weapons of terrorists and highly-equipped terrorists it is necessary to stop supplying them with equipment.”
Militants massively used drones in the attack on the Russian Hmeymim airbase and the Russian naval base in Tartus in Syria for the first time on January 6. Seven drones were downed, and control over six drones was gained through electronic warfare systems.
Following the attack, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the solutions used by the militants could be received only from a technologically advanced country and warned about the danger of repeating such attacks around the world.
During the Beijing Xiangshan Forum, Colonel General Fomin also adressed the issue of supplies received by terrorists from foreign states.
“There is a need to put an end to the provision of money, weapons, equipment and various substances to terrorists, including chemical ingredients used during the so-called chemical attacks that are later blamed on the Syrian government,” the deputy defense minister said. “Our experience proves that terrorists have the most modern weapons and communication means, including space-based tools.”
The defense official noted that most of these tools and means were produced in foreign countries, particularly NATO member states.
Once again the US “Deep State” is right at the heart of every duplicitous and conniving misdeed in Syria and is operating “hand in hand” with Israel. Well well? are we surprised? ………Nope …I don’t think so!
Time to Kill the Mother Bird!
I think by supplying the S300 and the Electronic warfare systems to the Syrian government the Russians believed Israel and America had gone beyond the Red lines set by Russia.I remember Russians talking of cooling the hotheads and that was done.No bombing has taken place ever since the downing of Il-20
Russia was aware the various mercenary groups didn’t have the ability to coordinate that attack without outside help. How bizarre and stupid was it for the US to attack what amounts to Russian territory? All the rationale for the mega-whining and sanctioning the US has been dumping on.Russia just went down the ‘terlot along with their flimsy justification for their illegal presence in Syria. Fighting terrorists; my Aunt Fanny!
It is only “stupid” when it comes back to bite them. Winning Syria on the cheap once it got exposed that the US doesn’t really fight terrorism was always Russian wish-thinking, and underestimation of their enemy. The latter is a mortal sin–at least it is if you claim to take Sun Tzu remotely seriously. Showman Trump rebranded his anti-ISIS force into an anti-Iran force without breaking a sweat. And for decades already, Americans have been instructed that “Iran = terrorist”. Unless the Saudi Clown Prince MbS goes to the altar with Putin, then the message will be something almost opposite; and Americans will go right along with it.
i think you have your national agendas mixed up. Russia, a long time ally of Syria was invited in to help control the foreign mercenaries and violent ideologues threatening to over run the country. It has no plans to remain in Syria. The US presence is unwanted and illegal. They support the foreign invasion, wrongly labeled a civil war and have been a great help to terrorist organizations occupying Syrian land. Russia has no plans to establish a permanent presence. The US does, especially around the Syrian oil fields.
With “winning Syria” I didn’t mean conquering it; it was short for “winning the Syrian conflict”–showing the Arab world that Russia can restore state order, and showing Europe that it can stop refugee waves and the unchecked spread of terrorism. Given that the US’s own terror-fighting record is … very mixed, the Dark Throne will do almost anything to deny the Russkies such a success, even though objectively the US has only limited national interests in Syria. All this is normal and logical if you see the US as your implacable foe, but it has come as a surprise to Kremlin minds clouded by “partnership” delusions.
Oh and Russia does have plans of keeping some bases, and it has “persuaded” the Assad govt to sign reconstruction and energy contracts with Moscow. Let’s not pretend as if the Kremlin is above the normal rules of politics.
on 20 july 2017, Russia shot down a US “Global Hawk” drone worth billions over Syria, presumably with SU-30 or 35 fighters.
The aircraft was coordinating jihadist operations and basically acting as a flying command, control and communication platform for ISIS and Al-Nusra.
Since then, the US switched to manned platforms to perform the same tasks, on the grounds that shooting them down would be an act of war.
With this statement, imho Russia is saying that if the US intends to use the jihadist drones to cause casualties, their Poseidon plane becomes a legal target.
Very Interesting, do you have an article or perhaps know more about the tactical aspect of it?
Where it happend, how they detected it, the weapons used etc
http://www.google.com
The article and youtube videos i can find, says it was a S-300 system that shot it down, are we talking about the same incident?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpvE6Uwpmgc
Thanks, Thats the video i saw , and he says it was a S-300. Maybe some of them got hit with missiles and some from the air?
I don’t know if it’s the same (I’ve seen several on the Russian internet too), although it’s tactically incorrect to affirm that it has been hit from the ground – as the drone is filled with electronic war devices it makes more sense to use an interceptor and IR missiles, giving it no warning about the attack. in any case, this one was the largest of the US drones shot down, there were 4 or 5 other too.
Thanks, well, it is the S-300 after all. But yeah, IR missiles could be a safer choice depending on the situation
Likewise, perhaps Russian’s have concluded that if their manned surveillance aircraft are now exposed to tactical attack over Syria – ie Israel’s recent F-16 radar shielding actions that directly cost Russia an IL-20 and 15 crewmen – then US should not expect to be exempt from that escalation over manned surveillance aircraft.
US criminals and their Zionist masters will try to impose some casualties on Russians before the Paris summit. CIA is arming the headchoppers with drones to attack Russian airbases. Expect some sort of Zionist provocation before Putin and the fat orange dotard meet.
The gloves are off.
Hardly. If gloves are off Poseidon8 would be shot down similar way how Israel shot down IL20.
Think about it.
The Gloves are off for a Long time now. I can Teach Asyrian people, if they want how to cleate Chemical Biology, How to Create acid and Alkaline with no time to Spair. Its best the Gloves Stay on.
And why Russia didn’t shot down American Poseidon 8 spy plane instead of whinning “USA did it”. Everybody knows that USA did it. And nobody listen to Russia because Russian army is only whinning and acting like bunch of cowards. It is annoying.And counterproductive. Maybe Putin is good in judo with 5th degree black belt but this is not judo and you don’t want to give your opponent advantage before decisive counterstrike. Russia is on retreat 25 years since USSR collapsed, losing partners, losing international credit and losing military and information war.
funny that all the comments above my last, with the possible exception of John’s are all written by your garbage identities.
I’ll tell it again: ON 20/7/2017 RUSSIA SHOT DOWN A US GLOBAL HAWK DRONE and from then on US used manned aircraft to guide jihadist drones.
you’re the murk that remains on the sinks bottom after the sewer regurgitated.
No, they didnt.
Just like they didn’t shoot down this Poseidon
Lolololololololol
well my dear russian folks……it aint good or smart to tell your enemy you know who did what, but we are to scared to engage you because of the possible wider consequences…….. seriously now folks….giving the bully the impunity with which he can terrorize his neighbors/others will only encourage the bully to be more bold the next time. common sense we ALL learned at school
hence……shoot the fucking poseideon out of the sky.period.
Funny reading hahahaha.
s-400 vs poseidon next time. done
Doesn’t this have an internal component, i.e., isn’t the MoD saying that their troops and bases are being endangered when the political leadership gives them absurd rules of engagement, informed by their “partnership” delusions. This may not have been a determined attempt to take out Khmeimim Base, but it was a direct US hit on the Russkies, using only the thinnest “jihadist” cover for plausible deniability. And they got away with it as usual. There is a point, not necessarily in the future, when “restraint” becomes an empty euphemism.
Things are not what they appear to be. Clearly Russia had their own plane shot down as an excuse to escalate the Syrian war. Putin knew they are losing the war and bleeding billions every year. How many more years will the impoverished Russian people stand for Putin squandering billions in Syria? 5 years, 10 years, 20 years? Just judge Putin by his actions and results. The US did not down the plane. Israel did not down the plane. Turkey did not down the plane but Turkey had shot down a Russian fighter jet in the past. Syria shot down the Russian plane. Was Syria incompetent or following a corrupt Putin Plan (PP). Looks exactly like a corrupt PP. Just look at the results of the corrupt PP after the propaganda campaign blamed Israel for downing the plane. S300s deployed, no more Israel air attacks and no more US missile attacks. This plan worked so well for Putin it is almost as if he planned it himself. As for those 15 dead, probably hand picked from Putin’s enemies list.
Hahahahaha
Russians make good practice for the Israelis and Americans
They never shoot back and watch the SAA get pulverized in front of their junk S400 system
Stand down gunner. This was not an attack.
For decades both sides, Russia and West, have probed one another’s air defenses. If indeed these drones were being flown from the Poseidon, this event has all the signatures of a probing mission. Try to penetrate and self destruct upon mission completion if successful.
This was not an attack on Russian assets. The west will study closely all ECM in place to learn capacities and vulnerabilities. The only way to test the full capacity is to probe a critical asset.
Calls for war, and for shooting down an American platform are rash.
Thankfully Putin is level headed.
How do you know they were a probing mission, and not an attempt to destroy Russian aircraft on the ground?
It’s quite possible that the US thought that Ahrar Al Sham(Saudi Arabia) would get the blame for the attack, because they were launched from an Ahrar Al Sham controlled region.
The drone swarm that is intended to destroy targets at the airfield will employ four dimensional array along multiple vectors.
Oh, so you’re a serving officer in the US military, who knows and divulges American drone tactics?
Who said it would be US?
If you’re an officer in any countries military, that knows American tactics, that country is in trouble.
A 4 dimensional array? time to roll out Keanu Reeves.
Hmm yes fog-of-war is real. But this mission happened in a context where at least one other attack on Khmeimim killed personnel there and severely damaged aircraft. And a very funny way to probe your adversary by helping direct ISIS artillery fire that killed a Russian general–at least, if we give statements from the Moscow MoD any weight.
We can continue to push words around, but there is an objective issue here: if the drones were unarmed, it was a probe; if they were armed, it was an outright hit. The MoD knows the score; SouthFront may be a bit frivolous by illustrating with a photo of an armed drone which looks clearly not associated with this particular incident.
There is another simple way to arrive at a conclusion, and that is to treat the Americans like they treat others (what would Jesus do? ;-) ). The command at Khmeimim could have said “in combination with those drones, the Poseidon plane is an imminent threat to our forces”–and taken it out.
So they are supposed to let them probe their defenses and get info?
When the Bear Bombers fly to the curtain near Alaska they aren’t shot down. They may be escorted away but they aren’t shot down.
In the case of these drones, have at them, but it would be most unwise to shoot down a Poseidon like the Syrians shot down the Russian surveillance plane.
they did not intentionally shoot it down
I accept it was an error. This shows the risk of arming a less than competent ally with lethal weapons. The same principle applies to arming a less than moral ally. Either evil or incompetence can explain the tragic loss of young Russian lives that occurred. I choose incompetence as the most likely explanation.
I want to call out those who write here and urge with bravado and vulgarity violently aggressive reactions to any apparent provocation. Maybe you are trying to invite but thankfully cooler heads are in charge.
Russia can consolidate its gains in the Levant and protect Assad in a lessor Syria while at the same time winding down the broader conflict. Both Great Powers would be wise to leave Israel and Iran to resolve their issues by themselves.
No one should urge further violence.
The ones provoking and bombing need to be stopped! You think one day they will just say thats enough, sorry, lets be friends?
This is i think the last thorn in the Bear’s foot, he will put up with. US. Vieds are coming down.
And who cares? If you just sit there and get b!+(# slapped time after time without doing anything in self defense why wouldn’t they? All bullies attack impotent targets. Perhaps you people should grow some pride and stop letting everyone embarass you…Turkey, Israel, all NATO. You never put up, so just shut up. Your impotence is exactly why you’re currently actively surrounded on all sides with sight of your borders.
Obviously US forces are tightly integrated with the terrorists. The terrorists launch and initially control the drones, and then hand over control to the US plane. A bit obvious I would have thought, the yanks must be desperate.