Image copyright Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation first Russian ships fired missiles from the sea on the territory of Syria. According to the Russian authorities, strikes on Wednesday night from the south-western part of the Caspian Sea on militant positions extremist group “Islamic State”.
According to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, 26 start-ups were produced by four rocket ship Caspian Fleet of the Russian Navy on 11 goals. All of them were destroyed.
Putin listened to Shoigu said that a successful shooting terrorists from the Caspian Sea testify about the good preparation of the defense-industrial complex (MIC), and a good training of personnel.
The Russian General Staff also reported that the cruise missile strikes “Caliber NC” on objects IG had previously agreed with the partners in the Syrian operation. What kind of partners in question, are not reported.
The Pentagon chief Ashton Carter said on Wednesday that the United States is not going to cooperate with Russia on military operations in Syria as long as Moscow does not change its strategy. Russia’s actions in Syria, he called erroneous.
Earlier, it was also reported that NATO and the US does not intend to share with Moscow intelligence on Syria as long as Russia does not stop supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Caspian Flotilla
The Strokes, according to Shoigu, applied at a distance of 1.5 thousand. km of high-precision weapons that, as stated by the Minister of Defence, confirmed the high efficiency of Russian missiles at great distances.
” We know how complicated the operation of this kind, anti-terrorism. And, of course, to sum up early, but what has been done so far certainly deserves a high positive assessment “, – Putin said.
Later, the deputy chief General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia Andrei Kartapolov said that the strikes destroyed the base of training militants “Islamic state” in the Syrian provinces of Raqqa, Idlib and Aleppo.
According to him, the deviation of cruise missiles from the desired objectives does not exceed three meters, a flight corridor was planned over an uninhabited area.
The Caspian Flotilla, based in Astrakhan, is the operative association of the Russian Navy and is considered the most powerful naval association in the Caspian region. The composition of the fleet consists of several brigades and battalions of ships, as well as part of the coastal defense troops.
According to the website of the Ministry of Defense, the Caspian flotilla conducting anti-terrorist activities, is engaged in the protection of trade and the protection of the public interest in the area of the oil fields of the Caspian Sea.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Caspian Flotilla Soviet Union, as it was called at the time, was divided between the Caspian states of the CIS. The Russian part of the fleet had to relocate from Baku to Astrakhan and Makhachkala.
Cruise missiles
The structure of the Caspian Fleet of the Russian Navy, among other things, includes a small rocket and artillery ships, as well as missile and artillery boats. On the page of the Ministry of Defense in “Facebook” reported that the missiles on the territory of Syria were released from the missile ship “Dagestan”, as well as a small missile ships “Sviyazhsk”, “Uglich” and “Great Ustyug”.
Options flagship strike group, as stated in the caption of video frames a massive strike, carried out “Dagestan”, which is armed with modern high-precision missile system “Caliber NC”.
The flight of cruise missiles of the complex, made with the use of stealth technology It is carried out at a height of 50 meters with terrain following at any time, even in difficult hydro-meteorological conditions, according to the Defense Ministry. Firing range missile system “Caliber NC” on surface targets – 375 km, and on coastal targets – up to 2600 km.
It is known that the ship “Dagestan” became part of the Caspian Flotilla in 2012, becoming the first ship Russian Navy, armed complex “Caliber-NK”, which is able to use several types of high-precision missiles.
New air strikes
On Wednesday it was also aware of the new air strikes Russian Air Force in the north-west Syria. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, strikes affected the neighboring provinces of Hama and Idlib, and were accompanied by a ground operation, Syrian government forces.
As the head of the board of Rami Abdel Rahman, the first time immediately after the air strikes broke ground battles between the military and rebels of the armed Syrian opposition.
Syrian television reported Russian air strikes on positions jihadists in Aleppo. In addition, it reports on the massive shelling, which was conducted in four positions of militants “Islamic state.” According to Syrian activists, strikes were “the forces of the authorities”.
Sergey Shoigu at a meeting with Putin, said that since the beginning of the military campaign in Syria – from September 30 to date – struck at 112 sites Islamists in Syria . Moreover, the intensity of the attacks is growing, as in the past two days, according to the Russian defense minister, revealed a large number of objects, including command and control centers, ammunition dumps and training camps.
However, if Moscow assures that purpose Russian air strikes is the “Islamic state” that, for example, the Prime Minister of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu, said that only two hits, committed by Russian aircraft in Syria, have been put on the objectives related to the IG.
The NATO leadership require earlier from Moscow to stop air strikes, which resulted in the victims themselves opposition to President Bashar al-Assad forces and the civilian population in Syria. The North Atlantic Alliance stated that the actions of Russia in the region reached an extremely dangerous level.
Sources in the British military circles, citing intelligence reports told BBC BBC that only a “small” number of Russian airstrikes – roughly one of the 20 – is aimed at the forces of the IG. In addition, according to them, Russia is using unguided bombs, the use of which may lead to civilian casualties.
Jonathan Marcus, BBC commentator BBC on defense:
Russia’s decision to strike cruise missiles from ships in the Caspian Sea for allegedly targets “Islamic state” is a new twist to the growing involvement of Moscow in the conflict.
It is not very clear why such weapons, not air strikes, was preferred, but the missiles had to fly a considerable distance over Iraq and then Iran before reaching Syria.
The launch cruise missiles from the sea has long been a favorite method of attacking the United States in the period of foreign intervention, so maybe , Russia has shown that it has the full arsenal available to other “superpowers”.
However, this further complicates the already difficult perception of the air campaign [Russia] in the skies over Syria. Early signs of counter-attacks by the Syrian government forces with the support of its allies, may be much more important.
Anatoly Tsyganok, head of the Center for Military Forecasting:
When ships that are in the Caspian Sea, a strike is due to two things. Firstly, the Caspian Sea itself is surrounded by Iran and Azerbaijan. Apparently, these ships were not far from the Iranian border, and Iran has made it possible for Russian missiles cross its territory. Air defense of Iran and Azerbaijan, should have been aware [of the transaction], because each missile, which flies through the territory of Azerbaijan, gets off.
It is acknowledged that the ability to cross its airspace and provided Iran and Iraq. In addition, no secret that there are ships of the Russian Navy, which came to the Syrian coast, and they can serve as a cover for the air defense systems of the aircraft, which are [on the bases] at Latakia and Tartous.
Second , Russia [blows from the sea] has shown what it is capable of using weapons other than airplanes. I believe that it is a show of force. Attempts on intelligence targets from ships that are in the Caspian Sea – enough power powerful acknowledgment of the Russian armed forces and navy. Everybody understands that Russia is quite unexpected for the West focused its air force grouping in Syria. Russian planes were forced to fly across Iraq, and those early aircraft, which are quite secretly arrived in Syria, took the opportunity that was given is Iran and Iraq.
Over the past ten years, peacekeeping operations the United States and NATO structures, mainly go to the air. It is understood that train specialists sufficiently high level is difficult and no one wants to carry out ground operations. It is expensive and not profitable. Do continue blows from the sea, it is difficult to say, because the conflict in Syria is unlikely to end today or tomorrow.
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