MOSCOW. May 14 (Interfax-AVN) - The modern Russian-made air defense systems available to Damascus are a deterrence factor, discouraging the West to venture the Libyan scenario in Syria, said General Director of the Almaz-Antey air defense systems concern Vladislav Menshikov, and Director of the Center for the Analysis of Strategies and Technologies Ruslan Pukhov.
"The delivery of modern Russian air defense systems to Syria over the past few years, and the Syrian Air Force and air defense systems' maintenance in a relatively combat-ready condition, despite the systems' being generally obsolete, have been discouraging Western countries from venturing a military intervention against Syria," Menshikov and Pukhov write in the preface to a collection of articles, titled "Alien Wars", released in Moscow.
The West thus gave "the Syrian leadership in 2011-12 some time to take military and political measures against the opposition movement," the authors write.
"Up until now, the Western military aviation has never engaged in combat with Soviet, or Russian air defense systems of the latest generation, such as S-300P, S-300V, S-400, Buk, Tor, Tunguska or Pantsir.
"Predictably, a theoretical combat with such modern systems would make a Western aggression far more problematical and dangerous for the Western armed forces, and even discourage them completely from a unilateral intervention. It is not accidental that the United States was trying so hard to prevent deliveries of modern Russian air defense systems to Iran," Menshikov and Pukhov said.
Libya of the Gaddafi era "possessed an extremely archaic anti-aircraft system, dating back to the 1970s, which degraded noticeably during the sanctions period," they write. "The Libyan Air Force was in a state of similar disintegration and obsoleteness, and it was practically defenseless against modern air attack means. This factor allowed the West to easily and quickly intervene by launching an air operation in support of the Libyan rebels," the authors write.
Reports said earlier that Syria purchased 36 Pantsir-S1 surface-to-air missile systems from Russia, which are capable of hitting air attack means at a range of up to 20 kilometers at an altitude of up to 15 kilometers. In a combat setting, the system can be used to hit and destroy land-based and sea-based targets with light armor, as well as troops.
According to the Stockholm Peace Research Institute, Russia continued delivering Buk-M2 anti-aircraft systems and Bastion-P coastal missile systems to Damascus in 2011. It also got an order for exporting to Syria 36 Yak-130 trainer aircraft worth $550 million. Russia must also fulfill a contract for the delivery of 25 MiG-29 fighter jets to Syria. After the fighter jets have been supplied to Syria, they will enhance the country's combat capabilities to strike opposition if the conflict develops according to the Libyan scenario, researcher Peter Weseman writes.
A knowledgeable military-diplomatic source in Moscow told Interfax-AVN at the end of last year that Russia delivered Bastion systems to Syria under a contract signed in 2007. He declined to give the timeframe for the deliveries or their volume. Another source told Interfax-AVN at about the same time that Damascus hoped to get at least two Bastion systems, each complete with up to 36 Yakhont missiles. "This arsenal will help defend Syria's entire coastline from a possible attack from the sea," he said.
Russia exported a batch of Strelets surface-to-air systems to Syria under a contract signed in 2005.