The problem for Syria of course is that even with the best air defence systems... where do you hide?

In Serbia there were forests and mountains, while Syria is more open, which would make operating effectively difficult, and mobility absolutely critical.

Distraction, concealment, mobility, deception... such forces would be tested to the limit, but if the Syrian Air Force can maintain control of its air space then it has a chance, but I rather suspect a huge shortage of war supplies, plus the internal threat would make attack easier than defence.

The obvious solution for Syria is to simply threaten to launch ballistic missiles at nuclear facilities in Israel and Turkey if the outside interference doesn't stop.

Well Syria need to device tactics based on their environment , Mobility is for one , the other is Decoys and Deception , other being maintaining good Discipline and using guerrilla like tactics against far superior force.

For once Russia should step in there is no point in being fence sitters when it has so little ally in ME.

If Syria is attacked by NATO then they should use their missile to attack NATO radar in Turkey and Israel Diamona reactor after all the Israel came in and destroyed their reactor some time back.

The other option for both Iran and Syria is to unite and attack key targets in ME like Oil Refineries in Saudi and other countries once the oil prices goes high Western Forces will back out.

I find it strange that Israel has covert Nuclear weapons program and even has nuclear weapons and no one talks about it or imposes sanctions.

But Iran cannot operate even reactor for Nuclear energy or Develop its own Nuclear Weapons.

Wonder why this double standard , Why dont they make ME including Israel a nuclear free area and why just focus on Iran or Syria.

Reading the AW&ST report , it seems Israel was preparing well to deal with SA-17 and Pantsir SAM that Syria will eventually get.

Israel mastery over EW is quite well known , so much so they insisted having their own EW suite on F-35.

I hope the SA-17 and Pantsyr has good ECCM capabilities and dont turn into a DoDo in front of very new Israel EW system.

Check videos of Syrian Army firing BUK-M2E in latest Exercise

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d89CA0eiFA

Wonder why this double standard , Why dont they make ME including Israel a nuclear free area and why just focus on Iran or Syria.

Because when the US jumps up and down and claims Iran wants nuclear weapons it draws attention away from issues like Zionist oppression of Palestinians in their own country.

The justification for Israel to have nuclear weapons is in case their neighbours get similar capability... so if Israel or the US will attack any country in the region... except Israel that tries to get nuclear weapons capability then Israel doesn't need nuclear weapons then does it.

The problem is that Iran has signed the nonproliferation treaty which means it has legal and legitimate access to civilian nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. The Israelis never signed that treaty, but then India and Pakistan didn't either and when they declared nuclear weapon capability status there were sanctions and international condemnation. The US protected Israel from such things.

Iran is being punished for doing all the right things, and is getting pretty severe economic sanctions because Israel and the US think they might be trying to achieve nuclear weapons status. The irony is that they claim the Iranian wish to produce its own nuclear fuel for its reactors is a sign they want to make weapons grade uranium to make a bomb, yet the sanctions and witch hunts and quite frankly bullsh!t Iran is getting from the west (EU and US) is perfect evidence that they need to enrich their own nuclear fuel, because if they don't then fuel imports and sanctions would be the next option to try to control Iran.

The US and EU and Israel claim without any solid evidence that Iran wants nuclear weapons capability, while Iran wants an independent energy resource that cannot be cut off or sanctioned by outsiders. Iran has no oil refinery capacity of its own and so it exports crude oil and imports petrol and diesel and other processed fuels. Having nuclear reactors and the ability to process Uranium into fuel , and there is Uranium in Iran, would give them a reliable, stable power supply that would allow real economic growth for Iran... clearly something the US and Israel want to prevent.

The irony is that US and Israeli and EU actions only make the faction within Iran that want nuclear weapons even stronger... actually testing a nuclear weapon would likely be the only thing that would make the US and Israel and EU back off.

I hope the SA-17 and Pantsyr has good ECCM capabilities and dont turn into a DoDo in front of very new Israel EW system.

I would expect the export models would not be as good as domestic, but at the end of the day systems need to be tested in battle, and changes in both hardware and software and tactics are needed to make them effective.

Russian systems are developed with backup modes in case of heavy ECCM environments. It is all together possible that a Hermes missile with anti radiation features could be developed and fitted to Pantsir-S1... perhaps two per launcher, so in combat if a jammer is detected they can direct those missiles at the jammer platforms.

Jamming and anti radiation systems for use against MMW frequency radars is actually rather difficult... otherwise Longbow Apaches would be easy to defeat... just fire a few ARMs at them.

Often the situation with modern radars is that the small sidelobes of modern radars means that the only aircraft that can launch ARMs at the SAM are aircraft that are locked by the SAMs radar. Note the Patriot battery that had its radar taken out was taken down by a HARM launched from an aircraft the battery was tracking. It then becomes a duel between the SAM and the aircraft... and the Panstir-S1 has very high velocity missiles and the ability to engage 4 targets at once... including HARMs. Buk can also engage HARMs and aircraft out to fairly long range.

I for one wont have any problems in Iran developing a nuclear weapon , Nuclear weapon in their hands are as dangerous in hands of Iran as it is in hands of Israel.

If International community pushes Iran too much then they are better off exploding a Nuke much like North korea did. That would ease the tension.

Let US or Israel then decide what to do next , at the least Russia and China can veto their UN sanctions etc

I am fairly certain Iran today as the ability to make a Fission Weapon and they do have enriched Uranium or Plotonium to make few bombs , the only thing is when will they go open with it , As usual i expect all the intelligence to know little.

I for one wont have any problems in Iran developing a nuclear weapon , Nuclear weapon in their hands are as dangerous in hands of Iran as it is in hands of Israel.

I totally agree.

Iran having a nuclear weapon capability would have a very stabilising influence and force the US and Israel to treat Iran with the respect it deserves.

Claims that Iran will supply nuclear weapons to terrorist groups is bunk... the US has supported lots of terrorist groups and has never seen fit to supply those groups with nuclear weapons.

Pakistan would be more likely to give nuclear weapons technology to terrorist groups and there is no clear evidence or even suspicion they have, so why even consider Iran might? More importantly why are they punishing Iran because of all these things they say they might or want to do?

As if that was a crime.

Perhaps George Orwell was right in his book 1984... but instead of individuals being controlled by a state, it is a state controlling the world and punishing other states for thought crimes...

BTW the Naval F-35 will operate with the F-18 with the latter as a fighter CAP aircraft, while the F-35 will be the strike/intruder type aircraft.

Britains options would be a naval fighter version of the Typhoon, or expensive upgrades of their F-35s to meet their needs.

The irony is that if Russia begins work on their own STOBAL carriers that by 2027 or so they might have operational carriers with PAK FA fighters, or perhaps a naval light Mig 5th gen fighter. A Typhoon will be at a disadvantage, there is no European 5th gen fighter as such, just the F-35, which as I have been saying for some time is basically a stealthy Buccaneer.

Note I like the Bucc, it is one of my favourite western aircraft, but it was never a multirole fighterbomber.

AFAIK the Russian Navy will buy Mig-29Ks because they are in production and would be much cheaper than starting production for a couple of dozen Su-33KUB aircraft.

Israeli-Syrian Air and SAM Strength Analysis

http://csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/081125_is_syria_air_sam.pdf

Thanks to Mindstorm for providing it

Noticed a couple of mistakes... on slide 42 the AS-10 is SALH, not radio command or anti radar as shown, plus the AS-12 is several versions of the the Kh-25 and is anti radiation with a range of 40km, not a Kh-27 missile with a range of 60km.

In fact the AS-10, and AS-7 and the AS-12 all refer to what later became the same missile... the Kh-25 in SALH, radio command, and anti radiation homing models.

Interesting read however...

But iam disappointed she didnt visite any other country than Syria.

Probably intentional to make a point.

Iran Can Produce Four Atom Bombs – Israeli Intelligence

Iran has four tons of 20 percent enriched uranium, enough to make four crude nuclear bombs in a year, Israeli Military Intelligence head, Maj.Gen. Aviv Kochavi said on Thursday.

"Iran is vigorously pursing military nuclear capabilities and today the intelligence community agrees with Israel on that," he said. "Iran has over four tons of enriched materials and nearly 100 kilograms of 20-percent enriched uranium – that's enough for four bombs. It [nuclear bomb] will be done… within one year,” he added.

Speaking at the Herzliya Conference in Tel Aviv, Kochavi also said that while Iran states its nuclear program is peaceful, Israel has “conclusive evidence that they are after nuclear weapons."

Kochavi said the Iranian nuclear program, which has begun enriching uranium to 20 percent from which it can be further enriched into fissile warhead material, stems from several motives, including regional hegemony and deterrence.

Excellent.

Israel has conclusive proof that Iran is violating its NPT agreements... all they have to do is present this evidence to the UNSC and the matter can be dealt with.

Of course this has to be actual conclusive proof and the Israelis actually have to present it... they can't just claim to have it like the US did with Iraqi WMDs.

And of course if they don't present it then they might as well not have it and STFU.