When "enemy" nations acquire new military technologies, how do you assess their capabilities? How do you determine whether the manufacturers claims for the technology are accurate?
Last week, Syria reported that several Israeli jets violated Syrian airspace.
Now, the Israeli news site, debka.com suggests that the fly-over exposed the failure of new, Russian technology that both Syria and Iran just installed to protect their airspace.
DEBKAfile's military experts conclude from the way Damascus described the episode Wednesday, Sept. 6, that the Pantsyr-S1E missiles, purchased from Russia to repel air assailants, failed to down the Israeli jets accused of penetrating northern Syrian airspace from the Mediterranean the night before.
The new Pantsyr missiles therefore leave Syrian and Iranian airspace vulnerable to hostile intrusion.
This finding is VERY important to any nation interested in and considering attacking a country using this new technology for defense-- like the USA, and Dick Cheney's plans for Iran.
It is often suggested, by detractors, that debka.com is a surrogate of the mossad . This report could be a publicity effort for Israel, that demonstrates Israel's role in helping the US prepare for an attack against Iran. Or, it could be a test by Israel to determine the abilities of the new systems so Israel is more ready to attack, or at least threaten attack of Iran.
Either way, it looks to me like this was far more than the accidental territorial violation Israel reported it to be. It removes one impediment to attacking Iran-- one which no-one has discussed.
Of course, it also reveals that Russia has a stake in the looming conflict. This could be good or bad. Russia is making a lot of money selling to Iran, as the sabers are brandished. The more the US raises the threat of conflict, it is likely that Iran will spend more with Russia and possibly China. The more Iran is driven to Russia and China, (China is believed to be supplying the Taliban with weapons, using Iran as the channel. )
The bad news is that Russia and China are siding with Iran, providing military technology. The good news is that the Russian and Chinese connections to Iran may be enough to dissuade chickenhawks Bush and Cheney from actually attacking, and may even be enough to get Cheney and Bush to prevent Israel from attacking Iran too.
