General: Syrian Air Defense Complicates US Options

[Purveyor]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

(03-06) 09:11 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) --

The top U.S. commander in the Middle East told senators Tuesday that the advanced air defense weapons Russia has provided to Syria's regime would make it difficult to establish a no-fly zone there as part of an effort to help the rebellion.

Marine Gen. James Mattis, head of U.S. Central Command, declined to detail any military options the Pentagon has developed for action against the regime. But he told the Senate Armed Services Committee that it would take a significant military commitment to create even safe havens in Syria where aid could be delivered, as Sen. John McCain suggested Monday.

Senators repeatedly pressed for options to stem the brutal offensive against the Syrian people by President Bashar Assad's regime. And they questioned Iran's involvement there, as well as Tehran's ongoing efforts to develop nuclear weapons.

McCain said he is growing angry over the argument that the U.S. and others want to figure out who the Syrian opposition is before providing greater aid to them. A lot of people will die before that happens, he said.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/03/05/national/w230807S53.DTL

[atreides1]

1. I find it ironic

That the "US Congress" has more of an interest in the Middle East then they do in their own country! They are willing to spend US treasure and blood for someone else, and yet those on the Republican side, with some Democrats, would prefer that US citizens suffer so that people who can't even vote in our elections are protected.

[FiveGoodMen]

5. "They are willing to spend US treasure and blood for someone else"

I'm not sure what their motives are, but I'm reasonably certain they aren't pure.

IOW: I don't think they're trying to really help Syrians any more than they're trying to help us.

[dipsydoodle]

2. As doubtless does the Russian navel base there too.

.

[jakeXT]

3. I think you need stealth aircraft against the S300

F-35 SAM Killing Mission May Have to Wait For New Jamming Technology


The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is intended to replace the F-16 and A-10 as the military’s primary tactical strike aircraft; its stealth will allow it to penetrate advanced enemy air defenses or at least get close enough before it’s detected to knock them out.

The Air Force says the fifth generation aircraft was designed from the bottom-up to be the air arm’s premier surface-to-air missile killer. Yet, it may be many years before the F-35 is equipped with an electronics warfare suite which allows it to penetrate the thickest SAM belts, according to AvWeek’s David Fulghum.

The advanced Russian built S-300 SAM family is slowly making its way out into the world (so far, the system’s high cost has hurt sales). The “antidote” for the S-300’s long range, high-altitude sensors and missiles is the Next Generation Jammer (NGJ), Fulghum says, a program currently run by the Navy. Problem is, the NGJ won’t be fielded until 2018 at the earliest; industry is slated to present its latest and greatest in radar jamming to the program office sometime next year.

Network intrusion, hacking or spoofing an air-defense network, all the rage in air-defense defeat these days, will not be part of NGJ’s initial iteration; nor electronic circuit frying high-power microwave pulses. At least to begin with, it appears, NGJ will focus on brute-force jamming.
http://defensetech.org/2010/08/03/f-35-sam-killing-mission-may-have-to-wait-for-new-jamming-technology/

[Comrade Grumpy]

4. Imperial war isn't so fun when they can effectively shoot back at you.