Russian military activity in Syria is escalating, and Vladimir Putin was having fun watching the havoc done to US-backed rebels while his boys showing off their military toys, not to mention testing NATO’s capability and response time. When Russia deliberately sent an SU-30 fighter aircraft into Turkish airspace along the border with Syria, all hell breaks loose.

United States and NATO immediately condemns the intrusion. Russia conveniently brushed it off as a mistake and blames the “bad weather”. Turkey also claims another unidentified fighter jet, presumably Syrian’s MIG-29, had locked its radar on to 8 of its F-16 jets on Monday – for 5-minutes.

 

Putin has also sent the country’s most elite special forces team into the war zone. And there’re reports that China was planning on joining Russia in the fight against ISIS. China has shown solidarity with Syria, joining Russia in vetoeing UN proposals against Syrian Bashar Assad. But how can China justify it?

Simple – last year, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had sent out a threat to China over the perceived oppression of the Muslim Uighur minority in the state of Xinjiang. Therefore, in the name of national security and the fight against violent extremist ideology, China has been reduced to no choice but to join comrade Russia in the Syrian war.

 

As a matter of fact, Chinese cruiser has already entered the Mediterranean, followed by its aircraft carrier. Just like how Russia displays its latest gadget such as Sukhoi SU-30, the Chinese couldn’t wait to test its Shenyang J-15 warplanes on aircraft carrier Liaoning-CV-16. After all, China has stakes in Syria’s oil industry – Sinochem’s 50% shares in Syrian oil fields.

Heck, even Israeli PM has already flown in to Moscow, secretly, for a meeting with Putin. It seems Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu realizes America isn’t dependable thus the need to hedge by working with the new real master of Middle-East. It’s a public knowledge that Netanyahu and Obama do not see eye to eye.

 

The Pentagon has revealed that U.S. warplanes in Syria are forced to change their course to avoid a collision with Russian warplanes. Even U.S. predator drones such as MQ-1 have to make ways for Russian fighter jets which had deliberately flown very close to the drones so that their presence can be seen and felt by the Pentagon.

Besides hundreds of Russian marines, Russia has also deployed four BM-30 Smerch rocket launchers capable of firing cluster munitions, mines as well as high explosive warheads to Syria. Military analysts believe the Russians are forming a “protective belt” around Latakia, to protect President Bashar Assad.

 

But what raises eyebrows and send shivers down U.S. and NATO’s spines are the revelation of Putin’s latest weapons which were mostly unknown to the outside world until now – the high-tech missiles Pentagon calls SS-N-30s. Launched from Russia’s Caspian Sea fleet on Wednesday, the sophisticated cruise missile strike against Syrian rebels from nearly 1,000 miles (1,609km) away.

The newly discovered missile, which the Russians called “Kaliber”, is something similar to U.S. popular Tomahawk. Russian Defence Minister claims their ships have launched 26 such cruise missiles so far, destroying 11 targets and killing zero civilians. But in a latest CNN report, at least four missiles crashed into Iran, to which the Russian has denied, calling it part of the West’s “psychological warfare.”

 

But even if it was true that the cruise missile “Kaliber” had malfunctioned and strayed from its actual coast, it’s to be expected because the Russian Navy was still in the middle of testing its latest firepower. After all, an American AC-130 gunship had just mistakenly bombed a field hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing nearly 2-dozen doctors and patients.

Russia’s week-old military intervention in Syria has seen more than 100 airstrikes against the Islamic State and U.S.-backed rebel forces opposed to Bashar Assad. The U.S. claims only 10% hit the ISIS while 90% hit the rebel forces (largely sponsored by CIA). But to the Russian, anything or anyone not aligned to Bashar are regarded as terrorists, period.

 

Prior to “Kaliber”, only U.S. and Britain have boasted about their Tomahawks capability. Now Russia has joined that exclusive club of global military powers, Pentagon should have everything to worry. That’s because while the U.S. and UK require large warships – at least 500 feet long – to carry Tomahawk, Russian warships carrying Kaliber are much smaller – 200 to 300 feet only.

It’s worthwhile to note that the Russian’s Kaliber can be equipped with both nuclear and conventional warheads and could reach a distance of 1,550 miles (2,500-km) away. It’s not that hard to see how the war against the terrorists could easily escalate to a bigger war should Turkey, for example, is targeted by a “malfunction” Kaliber due to “bad weather”.

 

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October 9th, 2015 by financetwitter

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