Pentagon: Russian air defense systems in Syria 'absolutely ineffective'
At a press briefing, Pentagon spokesperson Dana White said that she considers the Russian-made air defense systems that Damascus used to respond to the West's attack on Syria to be "absolutely ineffective". She also said that the missiles used by Washington and its allies appear to have hit all targets.
White also accused Moscow of allegedly presenting false information. "Following our operations, Russia falsely claimed Syria air defenses shot down a significant number of missiles, when in fact we hit all of our targets. Of the surface-to-air missiles that the Assad regime launched, nearly each one was launched after the last of our missiles hit their targets. The Russian manufactured air defense systems were totally ineffective," the Pentagon spokesperson said.
The Director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces, General Kenneth McKenzie, also spoke about the erroneous launch of the Syrian missile defense systems on April 16th. According to McKenzie, such erroneous launch of missiles show a disruption in the normal functioning of Syrian air defense systems.
General Kenneth McKenzie spoke of the incident that occurred on Tuesday night, during which, as reported by the Syria-based SANA agency, Syrian air defense systems were activated by mistake, although it was previously alleged that they repulsed two missile strikes that were carried out at the military airfields of Shayrat, in Homs province, and Dumeir, 50 kilometers north of Damascus.
"I would note that on the evening of the 16th, we noticed a spasm of Syrian air defenses where they again fired six surface-to-air missiles against no targets, and probably without any kind of fire direction, which means the missile goes ballistic, travels to either where it explodes in air, or continues forward.” said Mackenzie during the daily press briefing. According to the Director, "this indicates a pretty serious dislocation of Syrian air defense."