Russia has shipped advanced anti-ship cruise missiles to Syria, a move that illustrates the depth of its support for the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad, US officials have said.
Russia has previously provided Yakhont missiles, as the weapon is known, to Syria. But the missiles that were recently delivered are outfitted with an advanced radar that makes them far more effective, according to US officials who are familiar with classified intelligence reports.
They would only discuss the shipment on the basis of anonymity.
The delivery of Yakhont missiles “contributes to Syria’s overall military capabilities, but specifically it would tend to push Western or allied naval activity further off the coast,” said Jeffrey White, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former senior US intelligence official.
It was also, he added, “a signal of the Russian commitment to the Syrian government”.
The disclosure of the delivery comes as Russia and the United States are planning to convene an international conference aimed at ending the brutal conflict in Syria, which has killed more than 70,000 people.
That conference is expected to be held in early June and to include representatives of the Assad government and the Syrian opposition.
Secretary of State John Kerry has repeatedly said that it is the United States' hope to change Dr Assad's "calculations" about his ability to hold on to power so that arrangements can be negotiated for a transitional government to govern a post-Assad Syria.
But the flow of Russian and Iranian arms to Syria, US officials have also said, has buttressed Dr Assad’s apparent belief that he can prevail militarily.
Russia has supported the Assad government diplomatically and has longstanding interests in Syria, including a naval base at Tartus.
At the United Nations, the Russians recently blocked proposals that the Security Council mount a fact-finding trip to Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon to investigate the burgeoning flood of refugees, according to Western diplomats. Jordan had sought the UN visit to make the point that the refugee situation was a threat to stability in the region, but Russia said that the trip was beyond the mandate of the Security Council, diplomats said.
When allegations that the Assad government had used chemical weapons surfaced, Russia also backed the Syrian government’s refusal to allow the United Nations to carry out a wide-ranging investigation inside Syria - which Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said was an attempt to “politicise the issue” and impose the “Iraqi scenario” on Syria.
Russia has provided military support to Syria as well. Russian officials have repeatedly said that they are merely fulfilling old contracts. But some American officials worry that the deliveries are intended to limit the United States’ options should it choose to intervene to help the rebels.
Russia, for example, previously shipped SA-17 surface-to-air missiles to Syria. Israel carried out an airstrike against trucks that were transporting the weapons near Damascus in January.
Israel has not officially acknowledged the raid, but it has said it is prepared to intervene militarily to prevent any “game-changing” weapons from being shipped to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group.
More recently, Israeli and US officials have urged Russia not to proceed with the sale of advanced S-300 air defence weapons.
The Kremlin has yielded to US entreaties not to provide S-300s to Iran, but the denial of that sale, analysts say, has increased the pressure within Russia’s military establishment to proceed with the sale to Syria.
Unlike Syria’s arsenal of Scud and other longer-range surface-to-surface missiles that the Assad government has fired against opposition forces, the Yakhont anti-ship missile system could provide the Syrian military a formidable weapon to counter international forces seeking to reinforce Syrian opposition fighters by imposing a naval embargo, establishing a no-fly zone or carrying out limited airstrikes.
“It enables the regime to deter foreign forces looking to supply the opposition from the sea, or from undertaking a more active role if a no-fly zone or shipping embargo were to be declared at some point,” said Nick Brown, editor in chief of IHS Jane’s International Defence Review. “It’s a real ship killer.”
Syria ordered the coastal defence version of the Yakhont system from Russia in 2007 and received the first batteries in early 2011, according to Jane’s. The initial order covered 72 missiles, 36 launcher vehicles and support equipment, and the systems have been displayed in the country.
The missile batteries are mobile, which makes them more difficult to attack. Each missile battery consists of missiles, a three-missile launcher and a command-and-control vehicle. The Yakhont missiles, which are about 22 feet long and carry either a high-explosive or armour-piercing warhead, have a range of about 180 miles, according to Jane’s.
The missiles can be steered to the target’s general location by longer-range radars, but each missile has its own radar to help evade a ship’s defences and home in as it approaches its target.
Two senior U. officials said that the most recent shipment contained missiles with a more advanced guidance system than earlier shipments.
One former senior US military official said Russia was walking a fine line in delivering advanced weaponry like the Yakhonts under what Moscow says are existing contracts with the Assad government, and holding back from striking any new weapons deals with Syria' military.
Kerry indicated that he had raised the issue of Russian arms deliveries to Syria during his recent visit to Moscow, but he declined to provide details. “I think we’ve made it crystal clear we would prefer that Russia was not supplying assistance,” he said. “That hasn’t changed.”
As the Syria crisis has escalated, Russia has gradually augmented its naval presence in the region.
In January, more than two dozen Russian warships sailed to the Black and Mediterranean seas to take part in what the defence ministry said was to be the country’s largest naval exercise in decades, testing the ships’ ability to deploy outside Russian waters.
A month later, after the Black Sea exercises ended, the Russian Defense Ministry news agency said that four large landing vessels were on their way to operations off the coast of Syria.
“Based on the results of the navy exercises in the Black and Mediterranean seas,” the ministry said at the time, “the ministry leadership has taken a decision to continue combat duty by Russian warships in the Mediterranean.”
New York Times