Syria's Russian-made Air Defenses Prevent Western Attack - Report

Smoke rises from an area on the outskirts of Sirte, Libya, after NATO air strikes and Libyan rebels pushing to take control of the city on 21 September 2011. EPA/BGNES

The deployment by Syria of even a small number of Russian-made advanced air defense systems is preventing the West from repeating the so-called "Libyan scenario" in that country, according to a report of independent Russian military experts.

A group of Russian military experts from the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) has published a comprehensive study of major military conflicts in the past two decades, which "could be used as a guide for success in modern wars", the Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily said on Wednesday, as cited by RIA Novosti.

The book of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST), analyses the causes and character of 11 military conflicts around the world that killed a million people.

As a popular uprising has been struggling with the dictatorship of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for more that a year now, the Russian experts believe that the deployment by Syria of even a small number of Russian-made advanced air defense systems, including Pantsir-M1 (SA-22) and Tor-M1 (SA-15), is preventing the West from repeating the so-called "Libyan scenario" in Syria – referring to the March-September 2011 NATO air strikes against the Muammar Gaddafi regime in Libya.

The book of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST), analyses the causes and character of 11 military conflicts around the world that killed a million people.

The study, dubbed Foreign Wars, concludes that a modern war could be won by "a complex and well-tuned military machine," which combines ground, air, sea and space components supported by advanced telecommunications technologies.

At the same time, even the best weaponry could be ineffective if it is used by poorly trained soldiers.

According to Rossiiskaya Gazeta, the most interesting articles in the compilation cover NATO's air campaign in Yugoslavia, U.S. and NATO military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, military conflict in Lebanon in 2006 and the most recent Western coalition campaign in Libya.

The lessons of these conflicts prove that the use of air assets in all their variants is a key element of modern warfare, while solid air defenses play a major role in thwarting enemy attacks.

Rossiiskaya Gazeta touts the study as a virtual guidebook for those involved in the development of the Russian Armed Forces and the strengthening of the country's defense capability.

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