A-50 ”awacs” kone nauttii yleisesti ilmasuojaa omilta hävittäjiltä. Tämä pieni nuuskija taitaa operoida juurikin lähempänä siellä missä tapahtuu.
Jos tämä on totuus, niin hieno peliliike Israelilaisilta lentäjiltä. Kuin shakkinappulan siirto turvaan ilmatilassa .Aika velikultia,jos ovat vanjan koneen taakse piiloutuneet
Saisi olla pidempi. Tosin luulisi tiedustelukoneen tietävän missä kohtaa Simeon vaihtaa kipan lentäjän kypärään tukikohdassa. Taas meni uskottavuutta naapurin ihmeaseisiin.
Nimen omaan. S-järjestelmienhän pitäisi suojata kaikelta ja pudottaa kaikki tarvittaessa alas. Nythän Israelilaiset iskivät F-16 koneilla jotka eivät edes ole stealh-hävittäjiä vaan ns. normihävittäjiä.
Signaalitiedusteluun kuuluu tärkeänä osana myös signaalien tallentaminen/nauhottaminen signaalikirjaston ylläpitämistä varten ja myöhempää hyödyntämistä varten. Se on erittäin arvokasta tietoa.
Russia summons Israeli envoy after warning of response over downed plane
Jerusalem refuses to comment as recon aircraft downed by Syria during alleged Israeli strike threatens to damage ties between Jerusalem and Moscow
A Russian military official gives a briefing on the downing of an IL-20 military plane near Syria on September 18, 2018. (screen capture: Sputnik)
The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Israel’s ambassador Tuesday afternoon, state media reported, as Moscow fumed over the Syrian downing of a military plane that it said was the result of an Israeli “provocation.”
The summons came hours after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Liberman that Moscow was holding Israel fully responsible for the downing of the aircraft and threatened possible “countermeasures,” amid fears the incident could send ties between Moscow and Jerusalem spiraling.
A spokesperson for Israel’s Foreign Ministry refused to comment.
According to Russia’s Defense Ministry, Israeli jets carrying out an airstrike on a Syrian target in Latakia used the Russian Il-20 reconnaissance plane as cover. Syrian air defenses attempting to repel the attack hit the Russian plane, which had 15 Russian service members on board.
Israel, which does not normally acknowledge specific strikes in Syria, has refused to comment on the incident.
“We consider these provocative actions by Israel as hostile. Fifteen Russian military service members have died because of the irresponsible actions of the Israeli military. This is absolutely contrary to the spirit of the Russian-Israeli partnership,” the Russian military said in a statement, according to Russia Today, a Kremlin-linked news outlet.
A Russian military Ilyushin IL-20 landing at Kubinka air base on June 3, 2011. (Artyom Anikeev/iStock/Getty Images)
In the phone call, Shoigu told Liberman that Russia “reserves the right to further countermeasures” against Israel, according to the state-run Interfax news outlet.
Shoigu added that the “actions of the Israeli Defense Ministry fail to match the spirit of Russian-Israeli partnership,” according to Interfax.
“Israel was repeatedly asked not to deliver strikes on Syria endangering Russian personnel,” Interfax quoted Shoigu as telling Liberman.
Liberman’s office confirmed that the minister had spoken with Shoigu, but said it “would not comment beyond that.”
The Russian government spokesperson refused to comment when asked if Russian President Vladmir Putin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would speak about the matter.
It was not immediately clear how the downing of the Ilyushin Il-20 plane would affect the ongoing cooperation between Israel and Russia in Syria.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Kremlin in Moscow on May 9, 2018. (AFP/Sergei Ilnitsky)
A Kremlin spokesperson said the situation was being “analyzed” in light of the incident, according to Interfax.
Despite being allied with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Iran, Russia has mostly turned a blind eye to reported Israeli attacks on Syrian and Iranian facilities in the country.
The Israeli and Russian militaries maintain what they call a “deconfliction mechanism,” which is meant to coordinate their activities in Syria in order to avoid incidents like this one. Until Monday night, these efforts had largely succeeded in preventing direct or indirect clashes since Russia became more deeply involved in the Syrian civil war three years ago.
According to Moscow, at approximately 10 p.m., four Israeli F-16 fighter jets approached western Syria from the sea and fired dozens of missiles at the facility, a Syrian defense ministry subsidiary with ties to the country’s chemical weapons and missile programs.
Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told the state-run TASS news agency that Israel knew the reconnaissance plane was there and used it as cover to carry out the airstrike.
“By using the Russian plane as a cover the Israeli air pilots made it vulnerable to Syrian air defense fire. As a result, the Ilyushin-20, its reflective surface being far greater than that of F-16, was downed by a missile launched with the S-200 system,” Konashenkov said.
The S-200 air defense system is manufactured by Russia and sold to Syria. In February, the same type of system was used to shoot down an Israeli F-16 fighter jet that was taking part in airstrikes in Syria in response to an Iranian drone that was flown into Israeli airspace from a Syrian air base earlier in the day.
An S-200 air defense missile being paraded in Kaliningrad, Russia on May 9, 2008. (Dmitry Shchukin/iStock/Getty Images)
Syria’s state media had reported Monday night that a state company for technical industries was bombed, likely by Israel, triggering their air defenses.
Two people were killed in the strike and eight more were injured, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which said the target appeared to be an ammunition depot, part of the company’s compound. The war monitoring group said it was not clear if the depot was for Iranian or Syrian forces.
Israel on Monday released photographs taken by its newest spy satellite of sites located deep inside Syria, including Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s palace, in an apparent threat to the regime.
The images, taken by the Ofek 11 spy satellite, were released by the Defense Ministry to mark 30 years since Israel’s first orbital launch on September 19, 1988.
The three photographs released by the ministry showed the Syrian Presidential Palace, also known as the Palace of the People; tanks on a Syrian military base; and the Damascus international airport, which was reportedly targeted by an Israeli missile strike on Saturday night.
The publication of the images could be seen as both a show of strength and a tacit threat to Syria, where Israel has routinely conducted air raids against Iranian targets — over 200 of them since 2017, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
A photograph of a Syrian military base taken by Israel’s Ofek 11 spy satellite, which was released by the Defense Ministry on September 17, 2018. (Defense Ministry)
The Saturday night strike reportedly targeted an Iranian plane at the Damascus international airport that was delivering weapons to pro-regime forces and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps units fighting in Syria’s civil war, as well as several weapons storage facilities at the airport itself.
Syrian President Bashar Assad in an AP interview at the presidential palace in Damascus, Syria, September 2016. (Syrian Presidency via AP)
There was no official Israel comment on the reported attack. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday seemed to acknowledge that the Israeli military was responsible for it
“Israel is constantly working to prevent our enemies from arming themselves with advanced weaponry,” Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem. “Our red lines are as sharp as ever and our determination to enforce them is stronger than ever.”
A photograph of Syria’s international airport in Damascus taken by Israel’s Ofek 11 spy satellite, which was released by the Defense Ministry on September 17, 2018. (Defense Ministry)
The Syrian state news agency, SANA, claimed that Israel had targeted the airport with missiles, activating the country’s air defenses, which shot down a number of the projectiles. The Syrian military has often been accused of exaggerating its successes in intercepting incoming missiles.
On Sunday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said that the alleged Israeli strike caused “substantial” damage at the airport, but had no immediate information on casualties.
For years, Israel has been concerned that Iran was using opportunities presented by the Syrian civil war to entrench itself militarily in the country in order to further threaten the Jewish state — alongside the threat already posed by terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Earlier this year, Israeli military officials also told Syria publicly that its military, specifically its air defenses, would not be targeted by Israel unless it fired at Israeli aircraft.
The Ofek 11
The Ofek 11 spy satellite was launched on September 13, 2016, using a Shavit rocket, the same basic model that Israel used to launch the first Ofek satellite 30 years before.
Shortly after takeoff, the team operating the satellite discovered it was not functioning properly. Teams of engineers on the ground worked to stabilize the Ofek 11 and get its systems running.
Israel’s Ofek-11 spy satellite takes off from Palmachim air base in central Israel on September 13, 2016. (Ministry of Defense Space Administration)
Nine days later, the satellite beamed back its first images, dispelling fears that it was a total operational loss.
“The Ofek 11 satellite will provide operational outputs,” the Defense Ministry said at the time.
The Ofek 11 was an upgrade from the Ofek 10 satellite launched by Israel in April 2014.
The Ofek 11 joined approximately 10 other satellites, including the Ofek 10, Ofek 9, Ofek 7 and Ofek 5, that feed intelligence to Israel’s security forces.
“Israel’s independent capabilities in the field of satellites represents a significant advantage in its efforts to stand up to various security threats. The quality of the images and photographs that are produced by our different satellites is incredible and provide us with valuable intelligence, and prove that the sky is not the limit,” Amnon Harari, the head of the Defense Ministry’s space program, said on Monday.
