Commenting on the results of the missile attack, both Pentagon Joint Staff Director Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie and Pentagon Chief spokesperson Dana W. White claimed that Syria’s response to the US-led airstrikes on the country was totally ineffective and did not hit any aircraft or incoming missiles.
According to the magazine, however, the statements by the Pentagon officials seem to be implicitly aimed at Turkey within a wider US effort to prevent its NATO ally from buying the Russian S-400 Triumph air defense system.
REAd MORE: S-400 and Terminator: WATCH Russian Air Defense Forces in All Their Glory
If the Pentagon’s assertion that Russian air defenses are completely ineffective is right, then the US justification for its twelve-digit dollar investments into stealth aircraft technology simply evaporates, as the threat they were built to counter does not exist, the publication argues.
At the same time, The National Interest is confident that at the forthcoming hearings of the House or Senate Armed Services Committee, the Pentagon commanders will return to stories about the threat of the S-300, S-400 and other Russian air defense systems to justify their programs and their budgets.
READ MORE: Russian Military to Get Several New S-400 Air Defense System Regiments
On April 14, the United States, France and the United Kingdom carried out a missile attack on a number of targets in Syria in response to the alleged use of chemical weapons in Douma. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Syria's air defense systems, the S-125, S-200, Buk and Kvadrat, which were produced in the Soviet Union more than 30 years ago, intercepted 71 of 103 cruise missiles during the strike.
