Russian Expert: Tomahawk Missiles Failure Tactical Defeat for US

"As (only) between 10 to 15 missiles fired by the US hit the Syrian soil and left less than 20 percent of damage, the attack brought about a heavy tactical defeat for the US," the Arabic-language service of Russia Today quoted Deputy Head of Russia's Missile Sciences Academy Constantin Syokov as saying.

News ID: 69887

Date: 27 April 2018 - 21:40

TEHRAN (Defapress)- He reiterated that the US fired between 50 to 60 Tomahawk cruise missiles from its warships and the Syrian air forces also fired about 25 cruise missiles which were most probably GBU-38 and AGM-158 guided missiles.

"The UK also fired eight Storm Shadow/SKALP missiles from its Tornado fighter jets all of which were ultrasonic guided missiles," Syokov added.

The expert reiterated that given the limited damage by the missiles which were not intercepted as the Russian defense minister put their number at 32, only some 10 to 15 percent of the missiles hit their targets.

Syokov pointed to the good performance of the Syrian army's air defense system which dates back to the former Soviet Union era and the low level of damage left in the attack, and said one of the reasons for defeat of these attacks was the long interval of the missile attack which was about half an hour and also the bad electronic warfare backup for their missiles.

He underlined that the US experienced defeat in its attacks on Syria and also harmed its reputation, while it also showed that the US' strong point which is its long-range missiles can be dealt with if the defense systems are organized.

In a relevant development last week, a Russian military expert underlined that the US missiles which didn’t operate during the recent strikes against Syria have likely been disabled by the Syrian air defense system.

The Arabic service of RT news channel quoted Mikhail Timoshenko as saying on Saturday that the two missing cruise missiles which were fired at Syria on April 14 have likely been disabled by the Syrian jamming system.

He added that the missiles didn’t act likely due to a malfunction of their electronic processing system.

Timoshenko explained that Tomahawk missiles are usually equipped with automatic explosive systems in their warheads which act in case the engine stops working, saying that hence, some of their vital equipment should have been disabled as their automatic systems have also failed to operate.

US, British and French forces launched over 100 missiles on Syria on April 14, and Russia says Damascus has managed to dodge 71.

In a televised address to the nation, US President Donald Trump said the three nations partnered in the missile launch.

The strikes were the biggest overt attack by the three Western powers against Syria in the country's seven-year-old civil war, which has pitted the US and its allies against Russia.

Other NATO members refrained from partnership in the attack, although NATO secretary general voiced his support for the move.

Israel was also absent from the strike, fearing Iran's response. After a recent missile strike on Syria's T4 base that killed 12, including 7 Iranian military advisors, Tel Aviv has been on guard in anticipation of Iran's tough reprisal.

The missile strikes took place as a team of OPCW was in Damascus to probe the alleged chemical incident in Douma, but the trio western allies didn't wait for the result of their work for somehow unknown reasons.

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