If my point had flown over BobS’ head any quicker it would have made a sonic boom.

Russia is dictating what to whom about what region?

Its less about how petrified they are and more about the fact that Russia has a free shot at a Nato warplane in its back pocket that it plans on using when the time is just right. The US and the Nato lackeys know this.

You forgot a fine 18 year old scotch, a bathfull of it that never ends! You forgot about testing their equipment, proving to the world their systems work so they can sell more. Remember Exocet. :-(

Man you’re really reaching. Out of all the possible reasons for weapon selection you fixate on one of the least likely. What a joke.

OK, I understand that. But that can be mitigated in so many ways - elevation, additional networked radar units, and my point still stands - Syria is not that large.

No, you wouldn’t want to be the pilot who, though he shot down a Sukhoi, started WW3 and got a billion other people killed too. Can’t have much of a career when your country got mutually annihilated.

He did make an assumption and an incorrect one at that. This article is a conclusion reaching for evidence.

Well, it has a tracking range of 600km - enough to reach neighboring countries. I am not saying that it would shoot every bird if it tried to get away and if it was 300km away when fired - but those pilots might have brown pants upon landing.

Of course, I don’t deny any of that - the OP just makes it sound like a plane has to fly over the freaking system before it is in danger, I am simply pointing the size of Syria and the (somewhat) effective range of S400

What kind of a dumb question is that? What in my post implies that? DO you seriously think that earth curvature over 400 kilometers would stop a S400 from going after a plane?

Ya know, bloody civil wars are not known for inspiring a lot of moderation. Everyone that is not pro-Islamist or pro-Assad is currently acting on their immediate and overwhelming need to get the fuck out of Syria... The mythical “moderates” are only moderate in a sense that they’re not quite ISIS, but are instead only…

when it comes to the air war over Syria, Russia is largely the one deciding who, or at least what, goes where

You deserve a cookie, a beer, and 100 stars.

This I agree with. Turkey wanted to be tough and shot down a Russian airplane... yeah, it probably was where it shouldn’t have been, but I’ve yet to read anybody who thinks it was an actual threat to Turkish forces. In response, Russia arms up with both AAMs on their airplanes and bringing in good SAM systems. Thus,…

Agreed. Turkey knows that ISIS doesn’t have planes, but then again, maybe ISIS isn’t Turkey’s enemy.

These kind of pieces from FA have two consistent qualities:

Are they department issue?

I feel like this is Turkeys doing. Ever since they shot down a Russian bomber, Russian aircraft are now armed with air to air missile, which was not the case before turkey made that fateful decision to pull the trigger. Now Russia can really strut its stuff and act aggressively because Turkey has given them a reason…

I didn’t think the West was targeting Assad supporters. Am I misunderstanding your post?