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Date: 20 Sep 2018 07:15:57 -0700
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more at
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/09/russian-surveillance-plane-got-shot-down-by-syria-and-russia-blames-israel/
Did Israel fail to warn Russia in time, or are Syria's aging air defenses to
blame?
On Monday night, a Russian Air Force Ilyushin IL-20 "Coot-A" electronic
intelligence and radar reconnaissance aircraft monitoring the Idlib province of
Syria was mistakenly shot down by Syrian air defense forces after an Israeli air
strike on facilities in Latakia, Syria. The Russian aircraft went down in the
Mediterranean, about 27 kilometers (17 miles) off the Syrian coast near Latakia,
with a loss of all 15 crewmembers aboard. Russian President Vladimir Putin said
the downing was the result of a "chain of tragic accidental circumstances." But
the Russian Defense Ministry has laid the blame for the downing on the Israelis,
saying that they failed to provide enough warning to the Russians to give the
IL-20 an opportunity to steer clear of danger.
"The Israeli pilots used the Russian plane as cover and set it up to be targeted
by the Syrian air defense forces," a Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson said.
"As a consequence, the Il-20, which has a radar cross-section much larger than
the F-16, was shot down by an S-200 system missile." The Russians also claimed
Israel only warned them a minute before the attack.
Russian Army General Sergei Shoigu told Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor
Liberman in a phone call that the fault for the reconnaissance plane's downing
"rests entirely with the Israeli side."
The IL-20 is a variant of Ilyushin's turboprop IL-18, an airliner first built in
the late 1950s. It carries a large side-looking airborne radar (SLAR) in a
torpedo-shaped pod under its fuselage, as well as a suite of signals collection
antennae, infrared and optical sensors, and satellite communications gear. The
aircraft is the Russian Air Force's leading intelligence-collection platform,
and at least one has been deployed to provide overwatch in Syria since 2015. It
allows Russia to listen in to anti-government and ISIS fighters' communications
chatter and other electronic emissions, provide targeting data for Syrian
military strikes, and keep an eye on the Turkish and US military units operating
in and around Syria.
A spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Force acknowledged that Israeli aircraft
struck a Syrian Armed Forces facility "from which systems to manufacture
accurate and lethal weapons were about to be transferred on behalf of Iran to
Hezbollah in Lebanon. These weapons were meant to attack Israel and posed an
intolerable threat against it." But the strike was long over at the time the
Russian aircraft was shot down, and the IL-20 was not within the area of the IDF
strike at the time of the bombing.
There is likely truth to both the Russian and Israeli accounts of what
Defense Force and the state of repair of Syria's S-200 missiles.
---
The Syrians are often late in getting their shots off. After the US, French, and
British missile strikes on Syria in April, Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Kenneth F.
McKenzie of the Joint Staff said that most of the Syrians' anti-aircraft missile
launches "occurred after our strike was over" and followed ballistic
they could find in the direction they believed the attack came from.
This isn't the first time an S-200 has shot down an aircraft in error. In
October 2001, the Ukrainian Air Force accidentally shot down a Siberian Airlines
flight from Russia over the Black Sea, killing 78 Russian and Israeli citizens.
also
https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-il-20-loss-in-syria-reveals-putin-powerless-to-protect-his-own-2018-9
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