Thread: The view from Hmeymim airbase, staging ground for Russia's war in Syria

The view from Hmeymim airbase, staging ground for Russia's war in Syria

From Matthew Chance, CNN

Updated 9:16 PM ET, Wed December 16, 2015

Hmeymim airbase, Latakia, Syria (CNN)With relentless regularity, the Russian warplanes take off from Hmeymim airbase in Latakia on northwest Syria's Mediterranean coast, the staging ground for Russia's air war against Islamist terror groups fighting for control of Syria.

Several times an hour, the base reverberates with the roar of fighter jets taking off to pound jihadist rebel groups and support the ground forces of beleaguered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Figures provided by Russia's Defense Ministry, detailing the activity here over the past 24 hours, give some sense of the intensity of Russia's air war.

Fifty-nine combat missions. Two hundred and twelve targets struck. Three hundred and twenty ISIS militants killed. And more than 100 oil facilities destroyed.

I'm here for a rare glimpse into the hub of operations for Russia's nearly three-month-old intervention in Syria.

While U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Moscow this week to discuss a potential political solution to this grinding civil war in the long term, it is here that Russia believes it is making a difference on the ground.

And from the Russian defense personnel I've spoken to here, they believe that they're winning.
Russia uses new device in fight against ISIS

Russia uses new device in fight against ISIS 01:09

The results of Russia's air war speak for themselves, I was told by a defense official earlier today.

Since Russia entered the Syrian conflict at the end of September, in response to a formal request by Syria's government, they have been able to significantly degrade the capabilities of ISIS and other terror groups, particularly the al Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front, the official said.

The progress of such groups in acquiring Syrian territory has been stopped in its tracks by Russia's air war, the Russians contend.

Compare that to the efforts of the U.S.-led, Western coalition efforts in Syria, which began air strikes in September 2014. During that period, until Russia entered the fray, the territory under the control of such groups grew significantly, they say.

Russia has been accused by the West of unhelpfully targeting moderate rebels opposed to Assad, rather than focusing on Islamist terror groups, in order to configure realities on the ground in Assad's favor, and thus shore up Russian interests.

Russia's goals, it seems, are twofold.

Prevent any more of the country falling into the hands of terror groups, which Russia views as a threat to its own security.

And strengthen Assad's hand -- and safeguard Russian interests -- should the time for political settlement finally arrive.

Exactly what the endgame will look like remains unclear.

But Russia says its warplanes will be here, continuing their punishing missions, for as long as Assad wants them.

CNN's Tim Hume contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/16/middle...kia/index.html

Looks like Russia is getting a lot more bang for the buck than we were. The link above has a chart that didn't post when I pasted the article, so you might want to click on the link and see how many planes we have versus Russia and the other countries involved.

Let Russia handle it. They've made a lot of progress it seems in just 3 months, so their plan is better than ours which hadn't made any in more than 2 years. Russia actually knows how to restore order, that's something they're very good at.

More firepower at Russian base as bombers pound Syria
AFP By Max Delany
3 hours ago

Hmeimim Airbase (Syria) (AFP) - A fully armed Sukhoi-24 bomber roared deafeningly down the runway at Russia's Hmeimim base in Syria and took off into the sky over the war-torn country.
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Within a few minutes another jet laden with bombs hurtled along the tarmac after it and followed up towards the clouds. Then another, and another.

"From the time the pilot gets the order to when the plane takes off and the target is destroyed -- all that is normally completed in just some thirty minutes," spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said as he looks at another plane gearing up for a mission.

"If the objective is in Deir Ezzor province then it can take some 25 minutes to get there, if it's near Idlib, then just 10," Konashenkov told AFP as part of a tightly controlled press trip to Hmeimim organised by the defence ministry in Moscow.

Almost three months after Russia started its bombing campaign in Syria at the request of President Bashar al-Assad there seemed little sign of it letting up at Moscow's sprawling facility deep in the strongman's heartland.

Russia's military said Wednesday its jets had carried out 59 sorties and destroyed some 212 targets in the past 24 hours, adding to the roughly 9,000 training camps, munition depots, command posts and oil refineries they claim to have taken out overall.
View gallery
Russian S-400 Triumf missile systems at the Hmeimim …
Russian S-400 Triumf missile systems at the Hmeimim military base in Latakia province, in the northw …

In a sign that it remains in an unrelenting mood, Moscow has also bolstered its firepower at the base to protect its aircraft over Syria after a Turkish F-16 shot down one of its fighter jets along the Syrian border on November 24.

- New defences -

At one end of the runway the radars of the most modern air defence system Russia's army possesses -- the S-400 -- rotated next to some half-dozen vast missile firing tubes.

President Vladimir Putin ordered the system to Syria in the days after the incident, and the defence ministry claims they rushed them over in hours.

"After they shot down our SU-24 plane the command was given and they were set up as quickly as possible," the commander of the air defence system told AFP, without giving his name.

The system can track some 300 targets and shoot down around three dozen simultaneously over a range of hundreds of kilometres, the military said.

"They are now permanently working on alert to provide full cover to our aviation flying over the whole of Syria and some of the Mediterranean," the commander told AFP.

Russia says its air campaign in Syria is aimed at destroying Islamic State jihadists and other terrorist groups in the war-torn country.

But members of a US-led coalition targeting IS separately insist Russia is mainly hitting groups fighting Assad, and NGOs and observers have alleged civilian casualties.

During the press tour, the Russian officials were desperate to show off the weaponry they insist is only hitting the targets intended.

Technicians winched bombs and missiles onto Sukhoi jets as helicopters whirred overhead to monitor the perimeter of the base that officials will only acknowledge contains "a few thousand" servicemen.

"There have not been any mistakes in our strikes," spokesman Konashenkov insisted.

"All our planes are equipped with the most modern targeting equipment," he said.

For those living in the surrounding region -- an Assad stronghold that has largely been spared bloodshed throughout the nearly five years of fighting in Syria that has cost some 250,000 lives -- there was no doubt what some felt about the arrival of the Russian might.

"Russia, Putin -- mwah," said Mohammed Antar, a resident of Latakia who now drives a bus on the Russian base, blowing a kiss with his fingers.

"God is greatest," he sighed with awe as a Russian fighter took to the sky in front of him.

Russia's military said the nearest frontline has been pushed back from some 25 kilometres from the Hmeimim base to about 50 kilometres.

"For now life in here is okay, is safe," Antar told AFP with the help of a Russian military translator. "That is thanks to the Russians."


http://news.yahoo.com/more-firepower...033757774.html

Sounds like it's getting better there already. Syrian Refugees need to pack and head back home.

Bombing plagiarism? Russia says Western media use its Syria footage in coverage of US-led coalition

Published time: 17 Dec, 2015 04:26

Western media often use videos from Russia’s anti-terror campaign in Syria to depict airstrikes by the US-led coalition. This is due to the coalition’s reluctance to share more information about its operations, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said.

Unlike the Russian anti-terror operation command in Syria, the US-led coalition has not organized coverage for journalists in the region. “I have to stress that no-one has ever heard of the reporters’ press-tours to the anti-ISIS coalition’s bases,” Major General Igor Konashenkov told journalists in Latakia, Syria on Wednesday.

“As a result even the most reliable international TV channels – I am sure unintentionally – are often using the footage of Russian airstrikes to illustrate the airstrikes by the anti-ISIS coalition,” he said.

For example, Konashenkov said, the Euronews TV channel recently used Russian Air Force footage while airing a comment by a representative of US Central Command, who was speaking about the successes of the anti-ISIS coalition.
Read more
© PBS NewsHour Epic bombing fail? PBS uses Russian footage to depict US airstrikes on ISIS oil fields

Last month, PBS NewsHour used two Russian objective control videos which showed Sukhoi bombers targeting an IS oil storage facility, as well as a large oil truck depot, with a voiceover saying: “For the first time, the US is attacking oil delivery trucks.”

Konashenkov suggested that the coalition release “at least half the volume of the footage that we released in the course of three months of operation in Syria” instead of making accusations about Russian airstrikes being indiscriminate.

“The more precise our airstrikes against terrorists become, the louder Western media get in their accusations and citations of anonymous sources that claim that attacks by Russian warplanes are indiscriminate,” Konashenkov added.

“Today we are the only army in the world that has showed how we have hit terrorist targets with specified precision weapons from Russian planes and ships. At the same time, we know, at best, only a few words from [US] officials about the results of the [US-led] anti-ISIS coalition’s combat aviation operations.”

Russia launched its military operation in Syria on September 30, at the request of the Syrian government.

https://www.rt.com/news/326179-weste...rikes-footage/

_______________________________

So the films our media is using of US bombing raids are actually films of Russian bombing raids?

Oh my God, that is funny! Is there nothing true coming out of our government actions? Is there so little to show and tell they have to use Russia's and pretend it's ours? Pathetic! And that's after we spend $500 million through the CIA training 4 "rebel" fighters who I'm sure have all run off by now.

We need to pull out of Syria altogether. Every man, woman, dime, dollar, gun, jeep, plane and every other piece of equipment we have over there. Pull it all out. Our involvement there is not honest. I don't know what evil ploy this government is up to over there, but we need to end it right now and let Russia handle it.

No small wonder that the USA has not been successful..



http://www.alipac.us/f19/natos-suppo...emoval-326347/