President Trump launches military strike against the Al-Assad regime

[Nilgiri]

Wow, last para surprised me because an Indian saying S-400 is not great against terrain hugging CMs, and on other thread they were chest thumping against S-400 and were saying that it can shoot down every thing which Pakistan have including similar CMs.

You will notice I qualified it with airbourne assets and C4I. India has these at its disposal (esp during a higher tension time before potential war) to guard against any cruise missile first strikes (and network with the potent S-400 interceptor and SHORADs as required for this)....or later theatre strikes during the actual conflict.

In Syria, Russia simply does not have this deployment given nature of the conflict there. It did not go in wanting to counter cruise missiles (presence of which can only come from other major powers). The aerial defense (S-400 and otherwise) was to give higher altitude protection for their jets and against jets (after turkey shot one of theirs down) and maybe scud type BMs if needed. S-400 deployment is also just largely claimed and not confirmed (though maybe I am wrong on that...maybe someone can correct).

That's why they are saying they are "improving" their defenses now...though that is probably just a vague statement since you have to seriously ramp up deployed capability to counter cruise missiles effectively (and I don't see them taking the syria war to that level just to shield Assad who is potentially trigger happy with chemical weapons after saying they were all destroyed...its terrible optics for terrible deployment cost).

 

[Oldman1]

How do Tomahawks get their target and detect possible RADARs in their flight path and decide to avoid them. This all is done by extensive programing. The tomahawk flight path and targets can be changed but you need to have prior data about the area where the missile is going to attack. GPS guided missiles work in a kind of 2D environment where as cruise missiles work in 3D.

My point here is like the Air craft destroyed in the picture below.

now this Aircraft cannot be hit by a GPS guided ballistic missile. As the missile will damage the hanger only but cruise missile is capable of entering the hanger and destroying the aircraft with the hanger still intact. this is not done by GPS or laser guidance. This can be only done by a two week prior programing. Now in this image it clearly shows the hanger intact and only Aircraft destroyed. If you internet readers can understand what I mean.

No its has sensors to able to target into a window if it has to. Or an entrance to a cave. Doesn't take that long to program when it already has the ability to do such a thing.

Watch this video. Took awhile to find it. Similar to what Tomahawk can do. Go to time index 1:05.

A formation of cruise missiles. This was many years ago.

 

[Gomig-21]

Sputnik News


"Unlike other air defense systems, say the S-400 Triumf, the S-300VM has additional capabilities against missile attacks. It is capable of intercepting warheads traveling at a speed of up to 5 kilometers per second and destroying them at a maximum altitude of 30 kilometers," he explained.

Lieutenant General Aitech Bizhev indirectly confirmed this assessment. The Antey-2500, he said, is primarily tasked with "countering a massive cruise missile airstrike on administrative, industrial or military objects, as well as our forces." He also told Svobodnaya Pressa that the S-300V4 is better at intercepting cruise missiles than the more advanced S-400.

The S-300V4, an upgraded version of the S-300VM, is "a highly automated and extremely efficient weapon," Bizhev said, adding that its readiness time is five minutes.

In service since 2013, the S-300V4 (NATO designation SA-23 Gladiator) is meant to track and intercept short- and medium-range ballistic missile, aeroballistic and cruise missiles, as well as fixed-wing aircraft, ECM (electronic countermeasure) platforms and precision-guided munitions. can simultaneously engage up to 24 aircraft or 16 ballistic targets in various combinations.


**************
On November 2016 , a Russian Su-24M frontline bomber was downed into Syrian territory by a Turkish air-to-air missile. One of the Russian pilots, Lt. Col. Oleg Peshkov, was killed by ground fire as he parachuted from the plane and the other pilot was rescued and taken to a Russian base.

Turkey defended its action, saying it repeatedly told the Russia pilots they were entering Turkey's airspace. Russia's Defense Ministry said "there was no violation of Turkey's airspace."

Because of no apology from Turkey, Russia instituted restrictive economic measures against Turkey.

If "maximum altitude is 30 km," what's their effectiveness against terrain hugging cruise missiles? When you think of the S-300/400, you think of aircraft and ballistic missiles being intercepted at higher altitudes. We really haven't even seen the true effectiveness of the S-300 or 400 in battle yet, have we? It would've been great if they launched a bunch so we can gauge their effectiveness against low flying, state of the art cruise missiles and a worthy adversary's ECM & jamming capabilities. Even if they knocked down a few, it would've gone a long way in promoting the S300/400 system. Of course they knew about the coming attack and moved over to allow it but now feel the need to talk up a storm. Must've been the agreed plan.

 

[Arabi]

That's very limited attack compared to "the mistakenly targeted attack" that killed over 90 SAAs in Dier Ezzor, hopefully we see more mistakenly targeted attacks than using guided and expensive Tomahawks after informing Russians and Assadists way ahead of the attack!

 

[Saif al-Arab]

That's very limited attack compared to "the mistakenly targeted attack" that killed over 90 SAAs in Dier Ezzor, hopefully we see more mistakenly targeted attacks than using guided and expensive Tomahawks after informing Russians and Assadists way ahead of the attack!

Abu Ivanka Al-Amreeki is still better (so far) than Grand Ayatollah Barack Hussein Obamapour (poor), lol.

 

[Oldman1]

That's very limited attack compared to "the mistakenly targeted attack" that killed over 90 SAAs in Dier Ezzor, hopefully we see more mistakenly targeted attacks than using guided and expensive Tomahawks after informing Russians and Assadists way ahead of the attack!

Purpose was to send a message with a limited attack. Not try to go to war. Hence warning them ahead of time and reduce the need for casualties. If it was a real attack, it would be like what you just pointed out where many were killed in Dier Ezzor.

 

[Gomig-21]

How do Tomahawks get their target and detect possible RADARs in their flight path and decide to avoid them. This all is done by extensive programing. The tomahawk flight path and targets can be changed but you need to have prior data about the area where the missile is going to attack. GPS guided missiles work in a kind of 2D environment where as cruise missiles work in 3D.

My point here is like the Air craft destroyed in the picture below.

now this Aircraft cannot be hit by a GPS guided ballistic missile. As the missile will damage the hanger only but cruise missile is capable of entering the hanger and destroying the aircraft with the hanger still intact. this is not done by GPS or laser guidance. This can be only done by a two week prior programing. Now in this image it clearly shows the hanger intact and only Aircraft destroyed. If you internet readers can understand what I mean.

Either way, there's the option for both. Joint Multi-Effects Warhead System (JMEWS), The warhead explodes on a delay after initial impact through a fortified bunker or hangar, or are guided through the openings if that's the way they're flight path is programmed, like the way they entered caves in Afghanistan. Not sure why you think it would take 2 weeks to program something like that. It really would make these missiles very ineffective in a battlefield environment. All maps and targets are accessed very easily and instantaneously from a massive library of stored data and then guided by GPS. It really isn't that difficult with so much technology and some of the most advanced software systems out there.

Ground radars would have a tough time picking up low flying cruise missiles and then send a SAM to destroy them. If the S-300 system wasn't operating, then the Syrians would need some form of AEWACS or fighters with radars capable of picking them up and being able to fire a missile to destroy them. Very difficult without a sophisticated defensive system which I don't believe Syria currently possesses without direct use of newer, Russian systems.

 

[Nilgiri]

Well done USA, enough is enough.
Here's a special naval tribute.

Kill that murdering c*nt.

Problem is killing one murdering c*nt just will unleash another one there....and nothing gets solved. They have a whole litany of murdering c*nts at the forefront and under the wing as well.

Its sad how Middle East basically needs a strongman running his fiefdom with iron hand and whatever level of despotism required....because that whole region culture is extremely tribal and vendetta based. No one is able to forgive and try build something new....which is really what is needed for democracy to work.

Instead its always turf wars on and off, and now its gotten especially vicious with the space surrendered by nationalists to religious extremists.

That's why best thing is to try manage (by enforcing red lines like this one) and hope for the best.

I doubt Assad will be using chemical weapons ever again (which is probably the goal here)....but I don't see killing him (as much as he deserves it) as helping Syria.

Chemical weapons are bad, but is there a lot of response going on for just the savage conventional targeting of civilians in the first place (by both sides)?

We only target chemical weapons because they are largely a more potent threat to that which lies outside Syria's borders (and are relatively rare and thus can be targeted in first place to say you accomplished something) ....and the optics/media (of both their use and countering) is especially intense. Not really because its going to change innocents dieing and suffering....given they are just one type of weapon of multitudes used against them.

Everyone after all talks about the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan. Few talk about or even know about the sustained firebombing of Japan before that.

 

[Anaoshak]

Soviet/Russian binary chemical weapon containers found on Assadist Shaytat airbase, bombed today:

http://www.rbc.ru/photoreport/07/04/2017/58e753bc9a794716735481ea/6.shtml
https://ria.ru/spravka/20130914/963201555.html

Posting it here as well so that people aren't misinformed by the information you put out.

Those are NOT chemical weapon containers, they are standard container for cluster munitions apparently.

And it makes sense since there are large presence of RBK-500 cluster bomb caps at the scene as well.

 

[ptldM3]

The US sailors should be on alert,if the rust bucket breaks and sinks so they can help the Russian sailors

Why is it that you never add anything of value and end up saying some rediculus things? Most of which have no basis...

If anything it's the USS Ross and Porter that would need to be towed away. The Grigorovich RFS-494 is a brand new ship.

The Russian military has had more modern equipment then anyone in NATO besides the US, this irritates the NATO stronk fanboys so they resort to calling the Russian military a "rust bucks".

Brand new "Rust bucket":

44 at least:

How does this prove anything? It's a bunch of circles someone made in MS paint, it proves nothing. Rows of Syrian aircraft were left intact, the runway is also intact. The US bombed creators into Iraqi and Yugoslavian runways to deny aircraft the ability to take off....yet Syrian aircraft continue to operate from the damaged airfield.

 

[F-22Raptor]

Why is it that you never add anything of value and end up saying some rediculus things? Most of which have no basis...

If anything it's the USS Ross and Porter that would need to be towed away. The Grigorovich RFS-494 is a brand new ship.

The Russian military has had more modern equipment then anyone in NATO besides the US, this irritates the NATO stronk fanboys so they resort to calling the Russian military a "rust bucks".

Brand new "Rust bucket":


View attachment 389587




How does this prove anything? It's a bunch of circles someone made in MS paint, it proves nothing. Rows of Syrian aircraft were left intact, the runway is also intact. The US bombed creators into Iraqi and Yugoslavian runways to deny aircraft the ability to take off....yet Syrian aircraft continue to operate from the damaged airfield.

A US official has already confirmed that 59 targets were hit, with 1 Tomahawk malfunctioning and landing in the sea. They also confirmed that the runways were not targeted. Here's the excerpt:

The defense official said that initial damage assessments show that all 59 targets were hit, though it is impossible at this point to verify that all the planes that had been inside the hardened aircraft shelters were still there at the time of the attack and were destroyed. Officials are calling the damage “about 20 aircraft,” all of them Russian-made and Syrian-operated fixed-wing aircraft – including those that were involved in the April 4 chemical attack. The runway itself was not targeted – the TLAM, based on its size and capability, would have had little impact on the runway and would be “a waste” for that target set, a senior defense official said.

Here's also how the US military tracked Assad's chemical attacks:

The Intel
A second senior defense official explained to reporters the background of the air strikes, as the U.S. has watched the Syrian regime escalate its chemical-related attacks on its own civilians in recent weeks as opposition forces threatened to take an important military airfield in Homa.

• “The Syrian regime has been under intense pressure. There’s a significant opposition offensive in Homa province, and connecting opposition lodgments in Homa province to Idlib province to the north is something that the opposition is trying to do. And they had significant pressure on the regime,” the official said. “So the regime was at risk of losing Homa Airfield, which is a significant airfield for them, where they fly rotary-wing helicopters out of there, it’s suspected to be a barrel bomb manufacturing facility, and so this was a significant risk to the regime. They were under a lot of pressure. We think this attack was linked to a battlefield desperation decision to stop the opposition from seizing those key regime elements.”
• On March 25, the Syrian regime dropped chlorine industrial chemicals on Homa.
• On March 30, the regime dropped an unconfirmed chemical on Homa, which a non-governmental organization on the ground said was consistent with a nerve agent.
• On April 1, the regime dropped a sarin bomb on Khan Sheikhoun, in the in Idlib province, in the worst chemical weapon attack since 2013. The U.S. military has tracks of Syrian aircraft flying from al-Shayrat Airfield to Khan Sheikhoun and being in the area just before 7 a.m. that morning, around the same time that reports of sarin-related casualties started coming in.
• “We know the routes that the aircraft took, we know these aircraft were overhead at the time of the attack. The time of the attack was early morning, we suspect it was about 0650, 0655 or so. And reports of nerve agent-exposed casualties began almost immediately, at about 0700 we started to see the first reflections of a potential use of nerve agent,” the official said, adding it would “probably have been an SU-22” that dropped the chemical bomb – a Russian-built plane that the Syrian regime flies.
• “This escalatory pattern of using industrial chemicals, to using suspected chemical munitions, to verified chemical munitions caused us, obviously, great concern about the direction this was going and the risk to innocent civilians,” the official said. “We have high confidence that a nerve agent like sarin was used in Khan Sheikhoun; the symptoms are consistent with exposure to a nerve agent.”
• Shortly after the chemical attack, “as civilians began to flow into the hospital there in Khan Sheikhoun, a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) was seen over the target – a small UAV, either regime or Russian, flying over the hospital during the evacuation of the patients. There was lots of ambulance activity, and clearly people moving into a hospital. Some hours later, about five hours later, the UAV returned, and the hospital was struck with additional munitions (from a fixed-wing aircraft). We don’t know why, who struck that, we don’t have positive accountability yet, but the fact that somebody would strike the hospital, potentially to hide the evidence of a chemical attack … is a question that we’re very interested in,” the official said, noting that the plane that bombed the hospital was Russian built but it is unclear at this time if it was operated by the Russian or Syrian military, both of which use similar Russian fighters. The U.S. also has not identified who owned the UAV that collected intelligence for the hospital strike.
• The Russian government has tried to claim that opposition forces had a chemical facility in Khan Sheikhoun that was hit by a bomb, but the official pointed to evidence that the bomb hit – and left a massive crater – in the middle of a road, not near any buildings, as shown by multiple open-source video and satellite images of the town. The official said it was clear the bomb was dropped in a location near civilians and contained the sarin gas, and “any obfuscation of whether this was a nerve attack or not is really untenable in the face of the facts. … There’s no credible alternative to Syrian regime air attack as the source of the chemicals .. that killed so many Syrian civilians.”
• The U.S. military is now trying to determine the level of Russian complicity in the sarin gas attack. “We have a good picture of how the attack was executed. We know that the regime has a track record of using industrial chemicals, chemical-related attacks, and chemical capabilities, and I think we know they have the capability. We know they have that precedent. We know they have the expertise. And we suspect that they had help,” the official said. “We have a good sense of what happened and where it happened, we have a good sense for who executed the attack. We think we have a good picture of who supported them as well. Obviously, at a minimum, the Russians failed to rein in the Syrian regime activity, and again the continued killing of innocent Syrian civilians. We know the Russians have chemical expertise in country; we cannot talk about openly any complicity between the Russians and the Syrian regime in this case, but we’re carefully assessing any information that would implicate the Russians knew or assisted with the Syrian capability.”
• Beyond any potential ties to, knowledge of or support for the April 4 attack, the Russians in 2013 had offered themselves as the guarantor that Syria would turn over all its chemical weapons for destruction. The official said the U.S. had taken Russia at its word at the time that all chemical weapons had been removed, but in the aftermath of this attack U.S. intelligence will be paying close attention to sites previously used for chemical weapons attacks to look for further signs of current chemical weapons capabilities in Syria.

https://news.usni.org/2017/04/07/us-planned-executed-tomahawk-strike

 

[ptldM3]

A US official has already confirmed that 59 targets were hit, with 1 Tomahawk malfunctioning and landing in the sea. They also confirmed that the runways were not targeted. Here's the excerpt:

The defense official said that initial damage assessments show that all 59 targets were hit, though it is impossible at this point to verify that all the planes that had been inside the hardened aircraft shelters were still there at the time of the attack and were destroyed. Officials are calling the damage “about 20 aircraft,” all of them Russian-made and Syrian-operated fixed-wing aircraft – including those that were involved in the April 4 chemical attack. The runway itself was not targeted – the TLAM, based on its size and capability, would have had little impact on the runway and would be “a waste” for that target set, a senior defense official said.

Here's also how the US military tracked Assad's chemical attacks:

The Intel
A second senior defense official explained to reporters the background of the air strikes, as the U.S. has watched the Syrian regime escalate its chemical-related attacks on its own civilians in recent weeks as opposition forces threatened to take an important military airfield in Homa.

• “The Syrian regime has been under intense pressure. There’s a significant opposition offensive in Homa province, and connecting opposition lodgments in Homa province to Idlib province to the north is something that the opposition is trying to do. And they had significant pressure on the regime,” the official said. “So the regime was at risk of losing Homa Airfield, which is a significant airfield for them, where they fly rotary-wing helicopters out of there, it’s suspected to be a barrel bomb manufacturing facility, and so this was a significant risk to the regime. They were under a lot of pressure. We think this attack was linked to a battlefield desperation decision to stop the opposition from seizing those key regime elements.”
• On March 25, the Syrian regime dropped chlorine industrial chemicals on Homa.
• On March 30, the regime dropped an unconfirmed chemical on Homa, which a non-governmental organization on the ground said was consistent with a nerve agent.
• On April 1, the regime dropped a sarin bomb on Khan Sheikhoun, in the in Idlib province, in the worst chemical weapon attack since 2013. The U.S. military has tracks of Syrian aircraft flying from al-Shayrat Airfield to Khan Sheikhoun and being in the area just before 7 a.m. that morning, around the same time that reports of sarin-related casualties started coming in.
• “We know the routes that the aircraft took, we know these aircraft were overhead at the time of the attack. The time of the attack was early morning, we suspect it was about 0650, 0655 or so. And reports of nerve agent-exposed casualties began almost immediately, at about 0700 we started to see the first reflections of a potential use of nerve agent,” the official said, adding it would “probably have been an SU-22” that dropped the chemical bomb – a Russian-built plane that the Syrian regime flies.
• “This escalatory pattern of using industrial chemicals, to using suspected chemical munitions, to verified chemical munitions caused us, obviously, great concern about the direction this was going and the risk to innocent civilians,” the official said. “We have high confidence that a nerve agent like sarin was used in Khan Sheikhoun; the symptoms are consistent with exposure to a nerve agent.”
• Shortly after the chemical attack, “as civilians began to flow into the hospital there in Khan Sheikhoun, a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) was seen over the target – a small UAV, either regime or Russian, flying over the hospital during the evacuation of the patients. There was lots of ambulance activity, and clearly people moving into a hospital. Some hours later, about five hours later, the UAV returned, and the hospital was struck with additional munitions (from a fixed-wing aircraft). We don’t know why, who struck that, we don’t have positive accountability yet, but the fact that somebody would strike the hospital, potentially to hide the evidence of a chemical attack … is a question that we’re very interested in,” the official said, noting that the plane that bombed the hospital was Russian built but it is unclear at this time if it was operated by the Russian or Syrian military, both of which use similar Russian fighters. The U.S. also has not identified who owned the UAV that collected intelligence for the hospital strike.
• The Russian government has tried to claim that opposition forces had a chemical facility in Khan Sheikhoun that was hit by a bomb, but the official pointed to evidence that the bomb hit – and left a massive crater – in the middle of a road, not near any buildings, as shown by multiple open-source video and satellite images of the town. The official said it was clear the bomb was dropped in a location near civilians and contained the sarin gas, and “any obfuscation of whether this was a nerve attack or not is really untenable in the face of the facts. … There’s no credible alternative to Syrian regime air attack as the source of the chemicals .. that killed so many Syrian civilians.”
• The U.S. military is now trying to determine the level of Russian complicity in the sarin gas attack. “We have a good picture of how the attack was executed. We know that the regime has a track record of using industrial chemicals, chemical-related attacks, and chemical capabilities, and I think we know they have the capability. We know they have that precedent. We know they have the expertise. And we suspect that they had help,” the official said. “We have a good sense of what happened and where it happened, we have a good sense for who executed the attack. We think we have a good picture of who supported them as well. Obviously, at a minimum, the Russians failed to rein in the Syrian regime activity, and again the continued killing of innocent Syrian civilians. We know the Russians have chemical expertise in country; we cannot talk about openly any complicity between the Russians and the Syrian regime in this case, but we’re carefully assessing any information that would implicate the Russians knew or assisted with the Syrian capability.”
• Beyond any potential ties to, knowledge of or support for the April 4 attack, the Russians in 2013 had offered themselves as the guarantor that Syria would turn over all its chemical weapons for destruction. The official said the U.S. had taken Russia at its word at the time that all chemical weapons had been removed, but in the aftermath of this attack U.S. intelligence will be paying close attention to sites previously used for chemical weapons attacks to look for further signs of current chemical weapons capabilities in Syria.

https://news.usni.org/2017/04/07/us-planned-executed-tomahawk-strike

I don't care what us official claim. We have drone footage of the airbase after the attack and 20 aircraft were never destroyed. We have pictures showing rows of Syrian aircraft that were untouched.

 

[Mrc]

How do Tomahawks get their target and detect possible RADARs in their flight path and decide to avoid them. This all is done by extensive programing. The tomahawk flight path and targets can be changed but you need to have prior data about the area where the missile is going to attack. GPS guided missiles work in a kind of 2D environment where as cruise missiles work in 3D.

My point here is like the Air craft destroyed in the picture below.

now this Aircraft cannot be hit by a GPS guided ballistic missile. As the missile will damage the hanger only but cruise missile is capable of entering the hanger and destroying the aircraft with the hanger still intact. this is not done by GPS or laser guidance. This can be only done by a two week prior programing. Now in this image it clearly shows the hanger intact and only Aircraft destroyed. If you internet readers can understand what I mean.

They probably have firing solutions on all assets including russians...in syria... they just have to choose the right one and download into missiles... that wont take many days... u are right though about programming time but major programming is done months ahead... thats why those ships are loitering there

 

[TaiShang]

You are only highlighting one side of the story. You know that this is the Cold War reloaded. The US is a country that is always looking for enemies to remain united. Without enemies the US will resort to infighting.

The US conveniently selects weak opponents as its adversaries. Iraq, Libya, Vietnam and Afghanistan can hardly be termed as strong adversaries. Times have changed. The likes of Russia and China belong in a different league and you don't want to antagonize such strong emerging powers. The US has already found out the hard way during Obama's term.

Russia will own the US in Syria like it did during the Obama era. If you think that the US is the only country that can play dubious games you are sorely mistaken. You'll see.

Syrian Warplanes Take Off From Air Base 'Destroyed' by US Missile Strikes

At least six were killed in the illegal attack, but Syria's Shayrat airfield is not destroyed.

RI Staff
8 hours ago |

Mission accomplished.

In the early hours of Friday, the US launched dozens of Tomahawk cruise missiles from two warships in the Mediterranean at Syria's Shayrat airfield in Homs province.

Twelve hours later, the Syrian air force was able to take off from the "destroyed" air base to carry out missions against Washington's "moderate" rebels.

Yes, the "almost completely destroyed" Syrian air base is apparently still functional:

#حسين_مرتضى
شو خبرتكم قبل شواي شاهد بالفيديو اول الطلعات من مطار الشعيرات بعد العدوان الاميركي عليه #سلمو_ع_ترامب pic.twitter.com/rK5c5nC6Wt

— #حسين_مرتضى (@HoseinMortada)
April 7, 2017

JUST IN: Syrian warplanes take off from air base hit by U.S., carry out strikes in Homs countryside - Syrian observatory for human rights

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters)
April 7, 2017

Remember, America:

You spent $100 million to murder six people and blow up 9 outdated jets from the 1970s.

We suppose it's possible that this claim is being made to pressure Trump into more strikes.

JUST IN: National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster says the strike in Syria did not stop Assad's ability to carry out future attacks

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics)
April 7, 2017

But the truth is: All the evidence points to the US spending millions to murder 6 Syrians.

.@Jerusalem_Post Fully-armed Su-22 bombers under hardened hangars in Sha'erat airbase unharmed. pic.twitter.com/qgXApOFpgk

— Raphael Babikian (@RafaelBabikian)
April 7, 2017

Don't tell Fox:

 

[liall]

When is this mess in Syria going to get sorted? Feel bad for people killed :/