Why did not all the missiles fly. Military pensioners for Russia and its armed forces. Why the Russian and Syrian air defense did not work

US military experts are racking their brains to explain the baffling failure of the Tomahawk guidance systems that the US used to strike the Syrian air base. Of the 59 missiles, less than half reached the target. Many agree that 34 missiles were "lost" because Russian electronic warfare systems went off.

The tone of the Western press began to change from enthusiastic to critical after it was proved that the Tomahawk attack on the Syrian base was in fact a failure, since 34 missiles did not reach the target. One of them fell to the ground 40 km from the base. Judging by the photographs, it does not show any damage typical of an anti-missile strike.

Therefore, American military experts and journalists agree that the guidance systems of most Tomahawks were disabled by external influence. We are talking about Russian electronic warfare systems (EW), writes Free Press, referring to Gordon Duff, editor-in-chief of Veterans Today.

According to his information, out of 34 missing cruise missiles, 5 fell in the vicinity of Shayrat, killing several civilians and injuring about 20 people. The remaining 29 shells crashed into the sea, never reaching the shore. There is simply no other explanation for the loss of so many cruise missiles from American military experts commenting on the "strange news" from Syria.

Gordon Duff recalls the story that took place in April 2014 in the Black Sea, when the Aegis anti-missile system on the USS Donald Cook suddenly turned off. Then information about this was presented as a myth from the Cold War 2.0 series.

However, experts believe that the ship's crew witnessed how the Khibiny multifunctional aircraft complex operates, capable of stunning and blinding troops and weapons in a space with a radius of 300 kilometers. Most likely, it was such a system that turned off AGES during the flight of the Su-24 over the USS Donald Cook.

The United States is well aware that American electronic warfare systems are far behind Russian ones. Suffice it to recall the comments of Philip Breedlove, the former NATO commander-in-chief in Europe, who argued that it was electronic warfare systems that ensured the success of the hybrid operation in Crimea for the Russians.

After a Turkish fighter shot down a Russian plane, two Il-20 electronic reconnaissance and electronic warfare aircraft flew to the Khmeimim airbase, which can circle for 12 hours over a vast territory at any time of the day or night. Then, the Krasukha-4 mobile ground-based complex was seen in Syria, creating broadband interference for radio communications of the US military intelligence.

It is quite possible that American cruise missiles were shot down by the latest Rychag-AV active jamming station, which can be installed both on Mi-8 helicopters and on ground vehicles and small boats.

Why didn't all Tomahawks fall victim to "Lever"? Gordon Duff is convinced that electronic warfare is not a 100% antidote and only improves air defense capabilities. Judging by the number of Tomahawks that did not reach the target, the US Army experts were not mistaken.

At the same time, the editor-in-chief of Veterans Today is confident that if the next attack by the political showman Donald turns out to be just as "successful", then the US air fist has lost its former strength.

KP.ru journalist Viktor Baranets answers seven naive questions about why two-thirds of the US Tomahawks did not reach the target and where the Russian air defense was at that time.

1. Where did Trump hit Syria from?

From two US destroyers "Porter" and "Ross", which are drifting off the Greek island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea. These destroyers are equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles. And he fired 59 of these missiles at the Shayrat airbase in Syria's Homs province, owned by the government forces of Bashar al-Assad.

2. How much damage has been done to Shayrat Air Base?

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, as a result of the strike, 6 MiG-23 aircraft in the repair hangars were destroyed, as well as a radar station, ammunition depots and fuel and lubricants, a canteen ... 4 Syrian soldiers were killed and 2 went missing, 6 more were burned during fire extinguishing at the base due to a missile hit.

The Syrian authorities have already said that "America has done serious damage to the cause of the fight against ISIS *."

One of the employees of the base frankly admitted: "We can say that Shayrat is out of order." However, the Russian Ministry of Defense has somewhat different information: “the runway, taxiways and aircraft of the Syrian Air Force in the parking lots are not damaged.” And, judging by the first photos from Shayrat, this is closer to the truth - we see the surviving "take-off" and several surviving aircraft. Given that the cost of 1 Tomahawk missile is at least $1.5 million (and the price of some upgraded specimens can reach up to $2 million), it turns out that Donald Trump spent 100 million full-weight dollars on such an ineffective attack from a military point of view! In rubles, this amount does look threatening - 6 billion. Apparently, the political result from such an irrational waste of ammunition was more important for Trump.

3. Were there Russian soldiers at this base?

Represented by the Pentagon officially reported that they were trying to "minimize the risk to the personnel of the base," including the Russian military, who could be at this facility. And before the strike, they allegedly informed the Russian military through established communication channels that are used to prevent conflicts in Syria. Yes, there are such channels. But the message from the Americans arrived at the command of our group in Syria at the very last moment, when the Tomahawks were already on the way. For it is absolutely clear that if the warning had been “two hours” before the attack (as the US claims), then the Russians would have warned the Syrians, and they could have removed their planes and helicopters from Shayrat in that time.

Some Russian military experts “initiated” into this state of emergency claim that “there was no warning at all.”

4. Why didn't the Russian and Syrian air defenses work?

Russian anti-aircraft missile systems S-300 and S-400, which are located at our bases in Khmeimim and Tartus in Syria, protect precisely these objects. They do not have the task of covering the entire sky of Syria.

But why did the Syrian air defense system not work? This is by far the most difficult question, the answer to which has not yet been received. There are only assumptions of our specialists that the calculations of the Syrian anti-aircraft missile systems covering the Shayrat base "turned out to be not ready" to repel such a massive missile attack. In addition, the Americans, on their destroyers in the Mediterranean, approached the shortest distance to the coast and significantly reduced the flight time of their Tomahawks to targets. In this case, the response time to an attack by air defense calculations should be instantaneous. Apparently, this did not happen.

But there is other information: part of the Tomahawks was still shot down! The Pentagon cheerfully reported that "all the missiles hit the target." But this, to put it mildly, is not true. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, out of 59 missiles fired at Shayrat, only 23 reached the target. A little more than a third!

But whether the 36 Tomahawks that did not fly were really shot down or simply fell into the sea, got lost along the way - this remains to be seen.

5. What is a Tomahawk?

This is an American multi-purpose high-precision long-range subsonic cruise missile, strategic and tactical. It was put into service back in 1983. But it is constantly being upgraded.

The rocket got its name in honor of the edged weapons of the Indians - a battle ax, with which they not only chopped, but also often threw it at the enemy.

"Tomahawk" is not easy to detect by air defense radars, as it flies at extremely low altitudes (up to 25-30 m) with enveloping terrain.

Firing range - 2500 km.

The average speed is 800–900 km/h.

Length - 6.25 m. Weight - 1500 kg. Warhead weight - 120 kg. A nuclear warhead can also be installed on the Tomahawk.

Some have already stated that Russian air defenses simply cannot shoot down a missile as powerful, fast and cunning as the Tomahawk. This is a lie. Even the S-300 (not to mention the more modern S-400 system) shoot down such "targets" flying at speeds up to 10 thousand km / h! So "Tomahawks" are quite tough for them.

But is it possible to compare the Tomahawk with the Russian Caliber missile, which has already shown itself in all its glory in Syria? Yes, you can. In fact, these are very similar missiles. They have close speed. The "Caliber" has a more modern and more accurate weapon that hits the target. We can say that "Caliber" is a super-"Tomahawk".

6. Moscow has announced that it is withdrawing from the Air Safety Memorandum with the United States. What does it mean?

The US missile attack was a flagrant violation of the Russian-American agreement (2015 Memorandum) that the parties undertake to avoid sudden actions in Syrian airspace (whether it be aircraft flights or missile launches). The Russian side, in accordance with the agreement, has always warned the US military about the time, areas and nature of the actions of its aircraft and ships in the region.

After the violation of the MoU by the United States, Russia simply “frees its hands” and refuses the established “rules of the game”.

7. Why did ISIS attack immediately after the US attack?

Indeed, ISIS militants launched an attack on the Shayrat base a couple of hours before the US strike. Maybe the Americans "by mistake" warned about their missile attack not the Russians, but the Ililovites? And they did not miss the moment.

This once again suggests that suspicions of Washington's patronage of ISIS in Syria are not groundless. Similarly, the ISIS attack on the positions of the Assad army near the city of Deir ez-Zor coincided in time immediately after the US coalition planes hit government forces.

Near Shayrat, Syrian soldiers still repulsed the attack of the bandits. But the sediment from her synchronization with the American strike remained ...

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As previously reported, of the 59 missiles fired by the Americans, only 23 reached the target. 36 Tomahawks did not hit the target. According to the military, the Americans launched missiles in 2 stages: first, 36 missiles were fired from the Ross destroyer.

However, after launching from the destroyer Ross, the Americans saw that the missiles began to strongly move away from the trajectory, and some simply lost their targets and began to fall. And then the Yankees were forced to make a second, emergency, launch of another 23 missiles from the Ross understudy - the destroyer Porter. It was these missiles that hit targets at the Shayrat base, vsepodrobnosti.ru reports.

Of the first 36 Tomahawks, not one reached the goal. All of them fell into the Mediterranean Sea or tens of kilometers from the Syrian base. This information is confirmed by the article of the American military expert Gordon Duff (Gordon Daff) "Trump Humilated: Syria Shoots Down 34 of 59 Cruise Missiles". The same material contains a photograph of one of the fallen American missiles fired by the first launch from the Ross destroyer.

A number of experts expressed information that the released Tomahawks were shot down by Syrian S-200 air defense systems, which are in service with the Syrian army. But then there would be an almost complete destruction of the rocket in the air - and only small fragments would remain on the ground from the tomahawks. Scattered over a huge area, given the height of the missiles. And the photograph shows an entire American missile, which was not shot down by a Syrian anti-missile, but simply, for some reason, “dead weight” fell down, straying off course.

So what knocked off course all the American Tomahawks fired by the first "volley" and made them fall into the sea or on the ground, tens of kilometers from a given point?

These were the latest Russian electronic warfare systems Krasukha, which have long been a threat to American missiles and a headache for NATO generals. That's what caused all the first 36 Tomahawks to miss the target, the publication claims.

Trump decided to "flex his muscles" in Syria. But our military did not blunder either - they showed him (and also the entire Pentagon) that when trying to start a full-scale conflict, our opponents will not have any advantage in the air. And all the talk about a "preemptive missile strike" is a cheap bluff of American politicians, which, as they say across the ocean, "is not worth a cent."

The first launch from the destroyer "Ross" went into milk. And the second launch of tomahawks, our anti-missile "nightmare" no longer began - for geopolitical reasons. In order not to take the escalation to the next level. Remembering the Cuban Missile Crisis.

But the signal sent to Trump and the American hawks was more than obvious - "if you think you have missile superiority over Russia, then you are deeply mistaken." This "hint" was understood by our partners - it was not for nothing that almost immediately after the attack on the Syrian base, frightened voices began to be heard from across the ocean that it was a "one-time action", that "nothing threatens Russian facilities" and that "no one in America does not want a war with the military superpower - Russia".

More recently, after a visit to Moscow, Tillerson said that the Americans are seriously interested in resuming the Syrian memorandum "on the prevention of dangerous incidents in the air," from which we withdrew after the missile attack on Shayrat. In general, the tone of the US Secretary of State's statements was very cautious, at times even frankly conciliatory.

1. Where did Trump hit Syria from?

From two US destroyers "Porter" and "Ross", which are drifting off the Greek island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea. These destroyers are equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles. And he fired 59 of these missiles at the Shayrat airbase in Syria's Homs province, owned by the government forces of Bashar al-Assad.

2. How much damage has been done to Shayrat Air Base?

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, as a result of the strike, 6 MiG-23 aircraft in the repair hangars were destroyed, as well as a radar station, ammunition depots and fuel and lubricants, a canteen ... Four Syrian soldiers were killed and two missing, six more were burned during fire extinguishing at the base due to a missile hit.

The Syrian authorities have already stated that "America has caused serious damage to the fight against ISIS" (an organization banned in the Russian Federation - ed.).

One of the employees of the base frankly admitted: "We can say that Shayrat is out of order." However, the Russian Ministry of Defense has somewhat different information: “the runway, taxiways and aircraft of the Syrian Air Force in the parking lots are not damaged.” And, judging by the first photos from Shayrat, this is closer to the truth - we see the surviving "take-off" and several surviving aircraft.

Given that the cost of 1 Tomahawk missile is at least $1.5 million (and the price of some upgraded specimens can reach up to $2 million), it turns out that Donald Trump spent 100 million full-weight dollars on such an ineffective attack from a military point of view! In rubles, this amount does look threatening - 6 billion. Apparently, the political result from such an irrational waste of ammunition was more important for Trump.

3. Were there Russian soldiers at this base?

Represented by the Pentagon officially reported that they were trying to "minimize the risk to the personnel of the base," including the Russian military, who could be at this facility. And before the strike, they allegedly informed the Russian military through established communication channels that are used to prevent conflicts in Syria. Yes, there are such channels. But the message from the Americans arrived at the command of our group in Syria at the very last moment, when the Tomahawks were already on the way. For it is quite clear that if the warning had been “two hours” before the attack (as the US claims), then the Russians would have warned the Syrians, and they could have removed their planes and helicopters from Shayrat in that time.

Some Russian military experts "initiated" into this state of emergency claim that "there was no warning at all."

4. Why didn't the Russian and Syrian air defenses work?

Russian anti-aircraft missile systems S-300 and S-400, which are located at our bases in Khmeimim and Tartus in Syria, protect precisely these objects. They do not have the task of covering the entire sky of Syria.

But why did the Syrian air defense system not work? This is by far the most difficult question, the answer to which has not yet been received. There are only assumptions of our specialists that the crews of the Syrian anti-aircraft missile systems covering the Shayrat base "turned out to be not ready" to repel such a massive missile attack. In addition, the Americans, on their destroyers in the Mediterranean, approached the shortest distance to the coast and significantly reduced the flight time of their Tomahawks to targets. In this case, the response time to an attack by air defense crews should be instantaneous. Apparently, this did not happen.

But there is other information: part of the Tomahawks was still shot down! The Pentagon cheerfully reported that "all missiles reached the target." But this, to put it mildly, is not true. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, out of 59 missiles fired at Shayrat, only 23 reached the target. A little more than a third!

But whether the 36 Tomahawks that did not fly were really shot down or simply fell into the sea, got lost along the way - this remains to be seen.

5. What is a Tomahawk?

This is an American multi-purpose high-precision long-range subsonic cruise missile, strategic and tactical. It was put into service back in 1983. But it is constantly being upgraded.

The rocket got its name in honor of the edged weapons of the Indians - a battle ax, with which they not only chopped, but also often threw it at the enemy.

"Tomahawk" is not easy to detect by air defense radars, as it flies at extremely low altitudes (up to 25-30 m) with enveloping terrain.

Firing range - 2500 km.

The average speed is 800-900 km / h.

Length - 6.25 m. Weight - 1500 kg. Warhead weight - 120 kg.

A nuclear warhead can also be installed on the Tomahawk.

Some have already stated that Russian air defenses simply cannot shoot down a missile as powerful, fast and cunning as the Tomahawk. This is a lie. Even the S-300 (not to mention the more modern S-400 system) shoot down such "targets" flying at speeds up to 10 thousand km / h! So "Tomahawks" are quite tough for them.

But is it possible to compare the Tomahawk with the Russian Caliber missile, which has already shown itself in all its glory in Syria? Yes, you can. In fact, these are very similar missiles. They have close speed. The "Caliber" has a more modern and more accurate weapon that hits the target. We can say that "Caliber" is a super-"Tomahawk".

6. Moscow has announced that it is withdrawing from the Air Safety Memorandum with the United States. What does it mean?

The US missile strike was a flagrant violation of the Russian-American agreement (Memorandum of 2015) that the parties undertake to avoid sudden actions in Syrian airspace (whether it be aircraft flights or missile launches). The Russian side, in accordance with the agreement, has always warned the US military about the time, areas and nature of the actions of its aircraft and ships in the region.

After the violation of the memorandum by the United States, Russia simply “frees its hands” and refuses the established “rules of the game”.

7. Why did ISIS attack immediately after the US attack?

Indeed, ISIS militants launched an attack on the Shayrat base a couple of hours before the US strike. Maybe the Americans "by mistake" warned about their missile attack not the Russians, but the Ililovites? And they did not miss the moment.

This once again suggests that suspicions of Washington's patronage of ISIS in Syria are not groundless. Similarly, the ISIS attack on the positions of the Assad army near the city of Deir ez-Zor coincided in time immediately after the US coalition planes hit government forces.

Near Shayrat, Syrian soldiers still repulsed the attack of the bandits. But the sediment from her synchronization with the American strike remained ...

See also: 

So, yesterday I tried in detail and in detail to cover the situation with what is happening around the attack on Shayrat, and in the evening I started searching for information about the loss of 36 tomahawks.

First, a few historical points need to be clarified. As a rule, tomahawks reach the target with a probability of 85-90%, this is a fairly high probability, I think the calibers with a large use of missiles will have about the same probability and this is a good indicator.

We saw this figure of over 90% in Libya, when out of a hundred launched tomahawks, 93 tomahawks (93%) hit the target, the remaining 7 fell somewhere in the desert dunes.

In Yugoslavia, tomahawks of the previous generation were used and there their probability was lower. Around 86%. In total, over 400 tomahawks were fired in Yugoslavia, of which about 30 were shot down by the Yugoslav air defense forces. That is, we take the percentage of "arriving" to the target without taking into account the destruction of them by air defense forces.

By the way, in Yugoslavia there was an interesting case when a pilot on a MiG-21 approached a flying tomahawk and shot him from a cannon.

Secondly, the rumors that the Americans simply disposed of the old tomahawks in this way are also lies, this can be understood by looking at photographs from the found parts of the tomahawks. So all tomahawks were 2015 release. The ship is not loaded with ammunition of tomahawks with parts of different production.

You can read more about this here by Akbar (https://cont.ws/@akbar/580251).

Thirdly, break a mountain of different materials (I'm not an expert myself), but I can say that among experts, "knock down a tomahawk with a microwave" is more of a joke. In fact, this is impossible.

The latest generation of tomahawks uses three guidance systems and GPS is used only when flying over the sea, as well as corrective on approaching the target. When the tomahawk reaches land, the GPS value is leveled off for a while.

It is almost impossible to influence the other two systems with the help of Syrian electronic warfare. But as it turned out, there is one loophole, which seems to have been tried in the Tartus region by the Syrians.

Small digression. I think that specialists from Russia, of course, helped the Syrians set up the system, or maybe they suggested how to "fill up" the tomahawk, but the fact that Russian equipment was not involved and, specifically, Russian soldiers did not press any buttons, I think, is guaranteed. I'll explain why. One way or another, honor always stands high for a Russian officer, and shooting down what you were warned about a few hours in advance, given that the target is an airfield not controlled by Russia, is at least a little wrong. In this situation, the Russian radars, at most, only led tomahawks and told the Syrians their location. Once again, this is true for me, I am sure that the Russian army did not take part in the destruction of the American tomahawks. If only because then they would have been destroyed all.

Fourthly, why am I sure that the tomahawks were not lost on their own, but were dug into the ground by the Syrians. Here Konashenkov himself prompts, pointing out to the Americans exactly how many missiles flew and how many did not fly. Let me explain. Tomahawk flies at an extremely low altitude of up to 15 meters, at such a height it becomes invisible to the S-300 and S-400 radars at a distance of more than 80-100 km. That is, at a certain moment, in the absence of our air defense / missile defense forces in the Shayrat region, Russia had to stop conducting tomahawks. This is also evidenced by the fact that Konashenkov said that 23 missiles flew, although in fact (parts found on Shayrat) only 15-16 missiles flew to Shayrat. The rest fell in the district, were shot down by air defense forces of the air base or something.

From this we can conclude that Konashenkov knew exactly how many tomahawks passed into the zone of invisibility, and how many did not.

Now the most interesting thing is how the Syrians shot down the tomahawks. The information that appears from various sources in the Arab blogosphere can be concluded that the Syrians shot down the altimeters of the tomahawks and they just plowed the ground with their belly. This is confirmed by photographs of fallen tomahawks in the Tartus area.

I also want to note that in the English-language Twitter of NATO supporters, serious questions are already arising from people that the destruction that the Americans officially showed does not correspond to 59 tomahawks.

And this is true, because already a few hours later our helicopters arrived at the airbase, as I wrote about yesterday.

Translation: Damage does not match 59 missiles at the air base.