Colic wrote:
The S-300, particularly with the 48N6 missile, is a very capable
system, but it really is not much, if any, of a threat to US aircraft
near their carriers. The best placement in Syria results in coverage
of maybe 70% of Israeli airspace. About the same amount of
Jordainian space is covered. There is pretty good potential to
reach into the western region of Iraq, even into the Mosul area,
but not as far as Fallujah. Al Asad is covered like a glove.
I'm sure Israel's intelligence service and our sats track the movements
of those SAM batteries closely so we know where they are and which are
active as in set-up for combat at all times. SAM systems are relatively
fixed targets and once they are detected you can set-up attacks to take
them down in short order unless you mass many systems together and even
then you can thin them out. The best air defense remains to be a
credible air force b/c the planes are not static in the sky and can
attempt to evade when attacked.