Kremlin alarmed by MoD report that US spy plane coordinated drone attack on Russia’s Syria base
The Kremlin has said it is concerned about the report by Russias Defense Ministry say that a US spy plane was actually in control of a drone attack on Russia's Khmeimim air base in Syria back in January.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made clear that the military have analyzed all available data and have drawn necessary conclusions before saying that the drone attack on the Russian air base was directed from a US P-8 Poseidon surveillance plane.
“This is undoubtedly a very alarming report,” he said.
All further details will be provided by the Defence Ministry. But President Vladimir Putin may raise the issue with the US counterpart Donald Trump when such possibility arises.
Kremlin's response comes after Colonel General Alexander Fomin, the deputy Defense Minister, had reportedly addressed the January drone attack during the Beijing Xiangshan Forum, a high profile conference on defense and security.
According to the top defense military official, thirteen unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) had approached Russias Khmeimim base at the time the Poseidon plane was traversing skies over the Mediterranean. When Russian electronic countermeasures were turned on at Khmeimim, the drones continued their flying mission in manual mode.
He said the drones were not manned “by some peasant,” they were flown from “a standard, well-equipped P-8 Poseidon” which had manual control over the UAVs in question.
When these drones came across Russias electronic warfare measures, they pulled back from the kill zone and began receiving some commands via satellite communications, General Fomin explained. Someone, he said, “guided the UAVs to the so-called holes [in Russian defenses]” which they utilized before being downed by Khmeimims surface-to-air missiles.
The incident occurred overnight on January 8, involving ten UAVs targeting Khmeimim itself. Three more drones attempted a strike on the Russian naval facility at the Syrian port city of Tartus. All 13 craft were then engaged by Panzir-S1 air-defense system.
Three enemy drones, overridden by Russian electronic warfare team, landed intact outside Khmeimim and were later inspected by the military. It was the first time Syrian militants had used remote-controlled top-notch weaponry in the war. The Defense Ministry assessed the drones were acquired “only from a country possessing state-of-the-art technologies.”
The Pentagon tried to rebuke the Russian allegations at the time, with spokesman Adrian Rankin-Galloway claiming “those devices and technologies can easily be obtained in the open market.”
The January attack was not the only one of its kind. Russian air defenses at Khmeimim Syria have been dealing with intruder UAVs on numerous occasions throughout this summer. No drone managed to get close enough to the facility.
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