It became known how the Israelis managed to hide behind a Russian plane
The Israeli pilots used a clever trick that temporarily made the Jewish planes invisible to Syrian radars.
Lieutenant Colonel Viktor Khaustov, deputy commander of an anti-aircraft missile regiment and participant in combat operations in Syria, spoke about this in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, answering the question of what could have caused the error of the Syrian air defense that shot down the Russian Il-20 on September 17.
“There is such a cunning technique in aviation - “aerial camouflage.” It appears that this is what the Israelis used. They gathered above our huge Il-20 on top of a kind of “whatnot”, which is why the marks from both our reconnaissance aircraft and the Israeli F-16s merged. And the Syrian S-200 could not hit them at that moment, since the “friend or foe” identification system hardwired into the brains of the anti-aircraft missile systems did not allow this to be done. But this system is configured only to prevent the missile from being launched at “its own people”, but when it has already been launched, it is not able to redirect it.
However, the missile itself is designed in such a way that its homing head picks up a stronger signal. And the IL-20 has a much larger reflective surface than a fighter. Naturally, the missile grabs the most powerful target and goes for her,” said the lieutenant colonel.
In his opinion, when the Israeli fighters changed course, “alien” marks appeared on the S-200 screen, after which the Syrian Defense opened fire, after which the Il-20 ran into a “friendly” missile.
“Besides, don’t forget that the S-200 is an old weapon. And the training of Syrian air defense specialists, to put it mildly, often leaves much to be desired,” the officer added.
At the same time, he clarified that the Il-20 has a system that warns of a missile attack from the ground or from the air, and explained why the Russian plane did not make an anti-missile maneuver.
“How do you imagine such a maneuver of a huge aerial colossus? Which has an area of only one wing of 14 square meters! This is not a fighter that can somersault and escape from an enemy missile... In any case, the culprits of the tragedy are the Israelis. They provoked her. And they must bear responsibility for this,” Khaustov believes.
As PolitNavigator reported, the Russian Ministry of Defensedeclared Israel's actions hostile and threatened with an adequate response.
In addition, the President of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, ex-head of the Main Directorate for International Military Cooperation of the Russian Ministry of Defense, retired Colonel General Leonid Ivashov called to break subordination to Israel and start shooting down Israeli planes without warning.
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