Turkey sends 25 F-16 fighter jets close to the Syrian border

As Syria and Turkey exchange fire for the seventh straight day, Ankara has announced up to 25 F-16 fighter jets were moved closer to the border, at Diyarbakir airbase.

The aircraft represent the manned component of the reinforced Turkish air defense system in the region that includes both Hawk and Stinger anti-aircraft units that have already been put on heightened alert status for months.

The Pressure keeps ratcheting up on the Turkey - Syria border. Regardless of who you think started it, recent events are alarming to say the least. I fear it is rapidly approaching a state of critical mass, when it takes a life of its own and cannot be stopped.

Along with the activity on the border of Israel and Lebanon, it seems the drums of war are reaching a deafening crescendo.

Source

the war-mongering neo-cons are determined to provoke WW3 no matter what. lets hope assard does not take the bait. i would presume he and iran will discuss their further moves. ultimately iran will get involved and huge losses may be incurred by the west's stupidity. but as usual many civilians will suffer.

reply to post by ErEhWoN


Looks like NATO also told Turkey they will be behind them if this gets bigger.

news.yahoo.com...

BEIRUT (AP) — NATO is ready to defend alliance member Turkey amid artillery and mortar exchanges with Syria, its top official said Tuesday, as Ankara sent additional fighter jets to reinforce an air base close to the Syria border where tensions have escalated dramatically over the past week.

If Syrian shelling continues and eventually kills some more civilians in the near future, Im guessing these jets that have been moved there will demolish all Syrian forces near the border.

reply to post by orangutang


There have been wars in the Middle East before, without WWIII.

But, I must admit, with tensions in the Pacific rising and the global economy continuing to drag, it does make it a disturbing possibility.

Here is something I think may come in handy in the near future for reference. It's a tech sheet and analysis of the S-300 through S-400 in great depth and from their initial development to present performance characteristics.

I think how well Turkey's F-16's perform against Syria's latest Russian supplied S-300 systems will be telling for the Iran engagement to come later. Iran is said to have 3 units of the real deal from international buying which they used to reverse engineer and make their own version. Who knows...but if these turn out to be duds in Syria, well? These are the Russian "real deal". It'll be a great test I guess...if it has to happen regardless.

Everything one might want to know about the S-300/400 systems

Thanks Wrabbit, these docs ll come in handy.....the war for the air sinks or swims on ths mettle of their steel.....
Without them they may have been a no fly zone long ago......
Id be interested in the outcome of this situation vis a vis the F16 and the S300/400 system...
The inkling i have is that Teheran may have the same homemade versions as well as Syria......it stands to reason they would share intel....and the Iranis are very good at rockets......

reply to post by Wrabbit2000



yeah well, china has their own variants and has a huge supply of these systems which were bought from Russia directly. China is said to have made their own variant of these radar and missile systems. What is alarming to me is that they are now an offensive weapon as well as a defensive weapon. Forget the f-16´s. They could shoot down all air travel supplying Turkey.

It will be telling to see who supplies them.

The most capable air defence system currently in PLA service are derivatives of the Russian Almaz S-300PMU/SA-10 Grumble family of Surface to Air Missiles. The S-300 SAM systems remain one of the most lethal, if not the most lethal, all altitude area defence SAM systems in service, with a range of more capable derivatives entering service in Russia, or in development.

Over the Taiwan Strait the later versions of the S-300 become "offensive" weapons in that they can attack targets in Taiwanese airspace, severely challenging that nation`s air defense. Moreover, these missiles threaten all U.S. combat aircraft that may be called upon to assist Taiwan other than the stealthy B-2A and F-22A, the latter which is just entering service in diminished numbers.

weapons.technology.youngester.com...

reply to post by BIHOTZ

I agree with you entirely and I've read my share of stories suggesting that China may have been back dealing S-300 variants to Iran. Who knows.... Iran had some on display but they also looked a bit like assembled 55 gallon drums painted to look like the missile tubes. Truth is the only thing that is hard to find these days....

What scares me about the latest generation 300 and the line of 400's is how they are designed. It's the true Russian philosophy and that's not good. Make it simple....in fact, make it idiot proof...make it work every time and make it kill. The Russians are damn good at that. The AK- literally is a record holder to prove it.. lol...

On these though.. It's not funny. If the enemy had Patriot Batteries, I would't worry. They'd screw 'em up with bad maintenance or human error. The selling point on these though, if you really dig a bit, is they are Self-Contained and Sealed units so they are as close to 0 maintenance in the field as the design could make them. They are also 'wheels rolling' to actual launch on a newly acquired target in a matter of minutes. It's one of their key export selling points as I found in material made for that too.

Umm...That is a little trick OUR main line Anti-Air systems can't do that I know of. At least everything I read last year on this kept going over how that was a huge thing. The driving down the road to actual shooting time.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Good point to bring up, with the Russian naval base in Syria, its no wonder the U.S. is hesitant to enter the hornets nest.

I don't think the Turkish f-16's will go it alone though. The U.K. and France were to have a sizable fleet in the eastern Med by now.

This would include the French carrier and the British Type 45 destroyer.

reply to post by ErEhWoN

Hmmm... It's a bad thing all around to be sure. I've noticed the U.S. hasn't had much for Naval forces in the Med for much other than passing on through for quite awhile now. I hope the big capital ships have enough defense to cover the smaller point defense type ships.

P800 Yakhont supersonic anti-ship missile

Russia supplied them with a bunch of cutting edge toys in Surface-Sea weapons as well. They just got the whole sample pack it would seem. Russia will be learning a lot this time around, as opposed to watching us pound the stuffing out of Iraq twice with it's older systems and defunct weapons. Syria sure isn't sporting the Russian's personal concept of cutting edge...but I dare say they have the export version of it. This sure won't be a quick hit and run, IMO.