Syria acquires the S-300PMU2 Favorit air defense system, supposedly able to down U.S. aircraft taking off from carriers in the Mediterranean

The Lebanon war and a fistful of Iranian petrodollars impel Syrian
president Bashar Asad to haul his armed forces into the present.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly 284 of Jan. 5, 207, revealed his latest acquisition:
the sophisticated Russian S-300PMU2 FAVORIT air defense system, which
is capable of downing Israel planes in Israeli air space and aircraft
taking off from US Mediterranean carriers. Two new mechanized divisions
are under construction raising the total to 12. Five will face Israel
on the Golan, joined by new elite units trained for cross-border
incursions.


The Syrian army has begun striking out in new directions for the first
time since Bashar Asad succeeded his father as president seven years
ago, DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military sources reveal.

Two new mechanized divisions are under construction. When they are
completed in the coming spring, the Syrian armed forces will consist of
12 divisions - five deployed opposite Israel on the Golan, of which 3
are in forward positions facing Israeli troops and tanks and 2 further
back on call as reinforcements should war erupt.

Two armored divisions are stationed outside the Syrian towns of Homs
and Der'a; the Republican Guard division 569 is permanently assigned
to securing the ruling Asad family in Damascus; an infantry division is
posted on the Syrian-Turkish border and another on the Syria-Iraq
frontier.

Hafez Asad's military doctrine was based on Syria being too poor in
money and technology to maintain modern air and naval forces; it must
therefore rely on a very strong anti-air defense system based on large
quantities of medium range missiles, mostly Soviet Scuds-B, -C and
-D, equipped with chemical and biological warheads. These missiles
are capable of reaching every densely-populated corner of Israel.

Asad senior also bought a huge fleet of tanks from Moscow.

Today, the Syrian army is one of the few in the world, outside Africa
and the Third World, to maintain in active service the anachronistic
T-54 and T-55 tanks. The later model, T-72, is obsolete too, and most
would be destroyed in combat with up-to-date tanks.

When Asad the younger assumed power in June 2000, he more or less
adhered to his father's military concept with two important
exceptions:

He signed a mutual defense pact with Iran binding each country to come
to the aid of the other against an external aggressor. The pact covered
a merger between the Syrian and Iranian military industries, including
Syria's missile factories (the biggest is an underground facility
near the northern town of Homs). Syria thus procured advanced missile
technology from Iran.

Asad's second project was to develop commando units for penetrating
Israel's home front in the even of a war with the Jewish state. Ten
of these battalions have been created.

But the Israel-Hizballah war of summer 2006 was the Syrian ruler's
real eye-opener.

He saw the legendary IDF fail to subdue the enemy; Hizballah pounding
northern Israel's towns and villages day after day and forcing one
million Israelis to abandon their homes. And he saw Hizballah using
anti-tank rockets with devastating effect against advancing Israeli
armored forces regardless of steady Israeli air bombardment.

The Syrian army has consequently undergone fundamental changes in
weaponry and self-perception:

1. Its high command has been freed of its long sense of military
inferiority to the IDF, despite Israel's considerable strength.

2. There will therefore be far less inhibitions in the way of
retaliating for Israeli military attacks, big or small, against Syrian
territory. This freedom from restraint could also apply to Israeli spy
planes penetrating Syrian air space.

3. Syria is preparing its army, especially the commando battalions, for
such reprisals to take the form of cross-border operations.

4. Since the second half of November, 2006, small special units of
10-12 men are in training as terrorist teams for strikes inside Israel,
starting with the Israeli Golan.

5. Anti-tank rockets have been introduced as standard equipment in all
units down to company level.

6. In Moscow last month, the Syrian president signed a big arms deal
with Russia.

7. He was taken round a base near Moscow for a display of the latest
Russian anti-air missiles. In particular, he examined the S-300PMU2
FAVORIT system, which is designed to defend strategic facilities and
armed forces against attack by modern aircraft, cruise missiles, and
ballistic missiles in heavy ECM environments.

This air defense system is equipped with 30N6E2 fire-control radar, a
96L6E target acquisition and designation radar, eight 5P85SE launchers
and 48N6E2 missiles with a range of 200km against aircraft and 40 km
against ballistic missiles.

The system can engage six targets simultaneously with 12 missiles.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military experts describe this as a highly
sophisticated, extremely expensive piece of hardware. Each battery
costs $600 million.

Our sources report that before he left, Asad clinched a deal with
Moscow to purchase this system on credit from Iran as part of
Tehran's arms transactions with the Russians. This is worrisome news
indeed. It will place in the radical Asad regime's hands a strategic
weapon capable not only of downing Israeli planes while still in
Israeli air space, but also US and European aircraft taking off from
carriers in the eastern Mediterranean.


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