Alwaght- Russia’s Defense Ministry says Moscow has deployed a battery of Russian S-300 air defense missile launchers to Syria to defend the country's naval base and warships in the Arab country.
“Indeed, the Syrian Arab Republic received an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system. This system is designed to ensure the safety of the naval base in [Syrian city of] Tartus and ships located in the coastal area [in Syria]…” Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, said in a statement released on Tuesday.
Konashenkov said it is unclear why the deployment of the missile system has created such a fuss in the West.
“The S-300 is a purely defensive system and poses no threat,” he said.
The statement came hours after Fox News quoted three US officials as saying that Russia had sent the S-300 systems to Syria at the weekend in its first foreign deployment of such system outside its borders. The officials claimed that Moscow “continues to ramp up its military operations in Syria.”
The statement comes after a report by Fox news that a Russian S-300 was deployed to Syria. The media cited three US officials who claimed that Moscow “continues to ramp up its military operations in Syria.”
Konashenkov recalled that before the deployment of S-300, Russia had delivered Fort air defense missile systems to Syria.
In November 2015, Moscow deployed its newest S-400 air defense missile system to Khmeimim in Syria as part of a security boost following the downing of a Russian jet by Turkey near the border with that country. At the time, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the S-400 systems are not targeting Russia's partners, “with whom we fight terrorists in Syria together.”
The S-400 is the most advanced anti-aircraft defense system in Russia.
