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Russian Weaponry in Syria Giving US Military Experts Goosebumps

© Photo : Russian Defence Ministry / Go to the mediabankCaspian Flotilla ships have launched 26 cruise missiles at Islamic State facilities at Islamic State positions in Syria
Caspian Flotilla ships have launched 26 cruise missiles at Islamic State facilities at Islamic State positions in Syria - Sputnik International
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Moscow’s successful anti-ISIL operation in Syria has made US military experts aware of the full-capacity of the Russian military; now US Army analysts will have to re-consider a lot of their previous naval warfare strategies, former French intelligence officer Alain Rodier told Atlantico.

With airstrikes in Syria, Russia has shown its full military capacity at a level that most US experts didn't expect.

Furthermore, after Russia launched cruise missiles at ISIL-targets in Syria from ships located on the Caspian Sea, it raised a few eyebrows in the West, as the US military will now have to figure out how to deal with the unprecedented way of firing missiles from a long range, Rodier explained.

"This naval firing capacity [of long-range missiles from ships] challenges the supposed idea of invulnerability of US Navy aircraft carriers. US military experts are now urged to review all of their naval plans to deal with this kind of new threat," Rodier told Atlantico.

This leads to the idea that Russia, technically speaking, can fire long-range cruise missiles from its ships anywhere in the world.

The launch of cruise missiles isn't that big of a deal by itself, but it's the combination of this type of guided rocket and small-size armed corvette warships that fired them makes military expert stand in awe. The fact that surprised many US experts was that Russia armed its Buyan-M class ships, which displace only 950 tons, with firepower comparable to much larger US Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and Ticonderoga-class missile cruisers.

© Photo : Russian Defence Ministry / Go to the mediabankCaspian Flotilla warships
Caspian Flotilla warships - Sputnik International
Caspian Flotilla warships

By demonstrating its might, Russia had two goals in mind. The first one was to demonstrate what is known as distributed lethality warfare, the strategy that focuses on not giving the enemy one big target and instead spreading military technology and weaponry across many smaller units. This confuses the enemy, making it harder to track down and destroy numerous smaller units; meanwhile, the smaller units themselves are each capable of delivering a fatal blow.

A Russian aircraft on a sortie to carry out targeted airstrikes on ISIS infrastructure in Syria - Sputnik International
Syrian, Russian Forces Use ‘New Strategy to Battle ISIL’
Second, Moscow sought to impress potential buyers of Russia's military equipment. Foreign buyers of Russian-made arms now have the perfect opportunity to take a good look at the military equipment used to bomb ISIL terrorists in Syria.

On September 30, Russia launched a multinational aerial campaign aimed at assisting Damascus-led forces in their fight against terrorist groups, which are trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad. The operation was authorized by legitimate Syrian authorities. 

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