Everything You Need to Know about the Cruise-Missile Strikes in Syria
Russia continues to insist that Syrian forces shot down a majority of the allied cruise missiles launched against the Assad regime by the United States, France and the United Kingdom on April 13, 2018. However, Moscow’s assertions are extremely dubious because low-flying cruise missiles are extremely difficult to intercept, particularly over land. The Pentagon maintains that all of the missiles launched against Syria hit their targets.

Russia claims that only twenty-two of the 105 allied missiles hit their targets. “General Staff of
the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation carried out a detailed analysis of the results of the strikes,” Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy, Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the Russian General Staff, told reporters on April 25. “The collected fragments of missiles, study of shell craters, and the nature of destruction of objects allow us to conclude that no more
than twenty-two hits of a hundred and five reported ones have been fixed in the target area.” The Russians further asserted that two of the allied missiles had crashed and were recovered. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the crashed missiles are allegedly being examined in Moscow.

“Part of the missiles did not reach the targets, apparently because of technical malfunctions, creating a threat of destruction of civilian objects and the death of civilians,” Rudskoy said. “Two of them, including the Tomahawk cruise missile and an air high-precision missile, were transported to Moscow. Now they are being examined by Russian specialists. The results of this work will be used to improve Russian weapons.”

Moreover, the Russians asserted that the allied strike was carried out against facilities where there is no evidence of the presence of chemical weapons. “If, in their opinion, these objects had stocks of poisonous substances, then when striking with cruise missiles large centers of contamination of the terrain could appear,” Rudskoy said. “And in the case of Damascus, tens of thousands of people would inevitably be killed.”

The Pentagon, however, disputes the Russian assertions. The United States carefully evaluated the Syrian sites to make sure that the chance of chemical weapons being released into the atmosphere—and accidentally killing civilians in the vicinity—was minimal. “Was sarin at the three sites that we struck? We believe that it probably was. The careful weaponeering through plume analysis, through the modeling that we do within our targeting enterprise as we look at those targets, we're able to reduce the possibility of that escaping to a very low level,” Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., Director of the Joint Staff, told reporters on April 19. “And we know, empirically, in fact, none did escape, just based on the fact there were no casualties around it.”

Moreover, the United States is convinced that all of the allied cruise missiles made it to their targets. “As we expected, Russia immediately began a misinformation campaign to hide its complicity by sowing doubt and confusion. Following our operations, Russia falsely claimed Syria air defenses shot down a significant number of missiles, when in fact we hit all of our targets,” Pentagon Chief Spokesperson Dana W. White told reporters on April 19. “Of the surface-to-air missiles that the Assad regime launched, nearly every one was launched after the last of our missiles hit their targets. The Russian manufactured air defense systems were totally ineffective. Russia and the regime demonstrated the ineffectiveness of their systems against two days later when those systems engaged accidentally.”

Former U.S. Air Force intelligence chief Lt. Gen. David Deptula—who has run several air campaigns—said that the evidence that the United States hit its targets is self-evident. Even if the Russians and their allies intercepted some of the inbound cruise missiles—or some crashed—it made no difference; the targets were destroyed.

“Debunking Russian fake news and misinformation regarding their claims of interception of Allied cruise missiles in the recent attacks in Syria is easy,” Deptula told the National Interest. “Simply look at the ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos of the intended targets—the answer is there for all to see. The desired effects of the destruction of the intended targets was
accomplished, period, dot. Whether or not the Russians intercepted any of the cruise missiles is irrelevant as the targets were destroyed. The degree of precise target destruction indicates that all of the cruise missiles hit their intended targets, but again, the desired effects were accomplished regardless of any Russian attempts to hinder those effects.”

The Russians claim that while the Kremlin’s own advanced S-300V4 and S-400 did not
engage—nor were they in a position to do so—that upgraded Syrian weapons shot down
most of the allied missiles. “It is to be noted that most high-precision missiles were shot down by S-125, Osa, and Kvadrat Soviet-made air defense systems. These systems were recovered and modernized under the auspices of Russian specialists,” Rudskoy said. “The Syrian Defense Ministry analyzed the results of the missile strike. On its basis, a number of changes have already been introduced into the air defense system of the country, which will further
increase its reliability.”

The Russian claims are dubious since it is essentially impossible to provide area air defense coverage against low-flying cruise missiles—only point defense is really feasible. Because the Tomahawk—and other—cruise missiles fly at extremely low altitudes, they are extremely difficult to detect, track and intercept except at very short distances because of the curvature of the Earth and terrain features such a hills, mountains and valleys.


A ground-based radar is inherently limited by line-of-sight and against a very low-flying object, the radar horizon is short—as little as twelve miles depending on the terrain features in the area. Even from the air, look-down, shoot-down radars are challenged due the clutter caused by terrain features.

As air defense expert U.S. Air Force Col. Mike ‘Starbaby’ Pietrucha—a former instructor electronic warfare officer in the F-4G Wild Weasel and the F-15E Strike Eagle—explained, cruise missiles pose a nearly insurmountable challenge for air defenses. “So, the Earth is not a smooth marble. Ships have an easier time providing air defense against low-flying cruise missiles, because there are no obstructions between the radar and the target, once the target breaks the radar horizon,” Pietrucha told the National Interest.

“Over land, terrain, buildings and foliage all block radar line of sight. The greater the distance to the radar, the harder it is to detect low altitude targets because the chance of blockage by an obstacle, or by sheer Earth curvature, goes up. There are no over-the-horizon fire control radars, obviously.”

Even relatively small changes in altitude from 1,000 feet to down 500 feet result in a reduction of the radar horizon by an additional 25 percent. Descending even slightly to 300 feet further reduces the radar horizon range by an additional 25 percent because of a simple mathematical formula. “The formula for the radar horizon is 1.23 times the square root of the antenna height in feet (answer in nautical miles),” Pietrucha said. “That’s a perfect sphere where the radar loses the ability to see the ground because of the curvature of the earth. Obviously, for a target in the air, the radar detection range is longer because the target may be above the radar horizon.”

One partial solution is to mount the radar on high ground (or rely on airborne cueing if one is very technologically sophisticated). “That’s why you often see radars mounted on hills—to extend the radar horizon. After about 1980, the Soviets started fielding radars on masts, to extend their radar horizon,” Pietrucha said. “They also fielded a radar (NATO: CLAM SHELL) intended specifically to look for cruise missiles at low altitude, and they put that on a mast. For extra bonus, put your masted radars on a hill.”
Even the modernized Syrian air defenses are not up to the task of defeating a cruise missile
strike like the one the United States and its allies launched. “The Syrians’ air defense systems are not the same as modern Russian ones,” Pietrucha said. “For older SA-2, SA-3, SA-5 radars, low altitude performance is somewhat limited due to antenna height and older processing techniques.”
Pietrucha dismissed Syrian and Russian propaganda videos of Damascus’ air defenses taking down the American and allied cruise missiles. “So that’s why when I saw Syrian video of an alleged cruise missile shutdown, I immediately doubted it, because the ‘target’ was not very low,” Pietrucha said. “But that’s all besides the point. IF the Syrians shot those missiles down, what caused the large explosions on their military assets? I vote for orbital dolphin lasers.”
As for the two crashed cruise missiles, it is possible that the Russians may have recovered some wreckage. Weapons are not perfect. Missile can and do malfunction, no matter the country of origin. However, the bulk of the Russian claims are mostly extremely dubious. Why Moscow would make such claims that is not clear.

“Short answer: I don't know,” Olga Oliker, senior adviser and director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at CSIS, told the National Interest. “Speculative answer: perhaps because they talked a lot of talk prior to the strike, and this makes it look like the Syrians did
something, so Moscow didn't have to. Perhaps because the Syrians operate Russian weapons,
and they don't want the weapons to look bad to other buyers. Perhaps because it's fun to troll the Americans and raise doubts about anything that Washington says, particularly once the threat of escalation has passed.”

Modern astronomy will stimulate scientific, technological, economic and human resource development—all high priorities for India. New Delhi should exploit its proximity to the ‘Roof of the World’ to advance its geopolitical interests.

India is located immediately to the south of the highest plateau in the world, the Himalayan Plateau, where the average elevation exceeds 4.5 kilometres above sea level [1]. The high altitude, minimum precipitation, clear skies, and low atmospheric and light pollution make the plateau, which spans the area between Ladakh, Aksai Chin, and Tibet, ideal for astronomy.

India and China operate numerous telescopes in this unique region. The Indian Astronomical Observatory at Hanle in Ladakh and the National Astronomical Observatory of China at Shiquanhe in Tibet are merely 100 kilometres away from each other. But while the Indian observatory focuses exclusively on scientific and technological objectives, the Chinese use their observatories not only for research but to advance more earthly objectives as well— including collaboration and better relations with other nations. For the moment, at least, India is losing at new-age astro-diplomacy.

Modern astronomy originated around the 19th century in Europe and North America. Owing
to geography, astronomy in its early decades was largely pursued through observation of skies over the northern hemisphere. But in the 1960s, a group of European astronomers recognised the need to observe celestial objects and constellations that can only be viewed from the southern hemisphere. Thus was born the European Southern Observatory—actually a group of astronomical observatories—in Chile’s Atacama Desert, the driest, high-altitude place in the world. Today, Chile houses not only European, but American and Japanese observatories .

These observatories cumulatively study the early universe, far away galaxies, black holes, nebulae and extrasolar planets and their potential to host alien life. The Chilean government has its unique geography to enhance its native scientific infrastructure and its diplomatic relations with major nations. Now known as the ‘astronomy capital of the world,’ Chile is able to attract scientists and technologists from all over the world.




The Himalayan Plateau has all the attributes, some superior to those in the Atacama Desert, to become a global hub of astronomy too. But while both India and China already have observatories on the ‘Roof of the World,’ only Beijing has demonstrated the diplomatic and strategic intent to lead.

Rather than undertaking projects alone, China has formed collaborations with different countries to work in Tibet. In 2013, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huawei and Chile’s National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research formed the China-Chile Joint Center for Astronomy .

The University of Cologne in Germany has provided the KOSMA submillimeter telescope to the Yangbajingzhen Astronomical Observatory near Lhasa [4]. Given its location in Tibet and at an altitude of approximately 4.3 kilometres, KOSMA can analyse the chemical composition of large swaths of the Milky Way galaxy, including sections of its centre. It is a win-win situation for German and other European astronomical institutions, whose submillimeter space observatory, HERSCHEL, already has made pathbreaking discoveries, including the
discovery of water vapour on the dwarf planet Ceres, the confirmation of molecular oxygen in the universe, and clues to the origin of oceanic water on Earth from a certain class of comets. The Japanese Ministry of Science and Technology (MEXT), working through the University of Tokyo, collaborates with the Chinese Academy of Sciences on the Tibet AS-gamma
Experiment which also is located near Yangbajingzhen .

This Sino-Japanese collaboration has led to discoveries of gamma rays emitting from highly destructive celestial events, such as supernovae, pulsars and blazars. Tokyo already operates telescopes in Chile, so having one in Tibet keeps it in the forefront of astronomical advancement.
The Chinese Five hundred metre Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), the largest telescope in the world, was built with an advanced L-band receiver from the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation . This receiver equips the FAST telescope to look for fainter and farther celestial objects and events in the universe. Canberra benefits by participating in a significant international project in addition to leading another major astronomy endeavour, the Square Kilometer Array.

More collaborations are in the works. Scientific teams from Japanese, Canadian, American and Chinese institutions have surveyed sites as high as 6000 metres near Shiquanhe, which will probably house the highest astronomical observatory in the world [7].

Beijing’s interests are not only in science. It gives immense techno-political significance to astronomy. It is exploiting astronomical collaborations to consolidate its relations with Belt and Road Initiative partners. It is helping the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and Government of Uzbekistan to install a four-metre-wide telescope at the Maidanak Observatory, 120 kilometres away from the city of Samarkand.

The FAST has been a game-changer for China’s global image as the new science superpower. The project is making Guizhou, a comparatively underdeveloped Chinese province, a global leader in the emerging ‘big data’ sector. The FAST catalysed the establishment of the ‘Sky Eye
1’ supercomputing centre, which is anticipated to store and compute massive amounts of data [9]. Owing to FAST, the provincial government of Guizhou has begun organising the first world’s first international big data industry expo .

A few city-blocks away from the picturesque East Lake in Wuhan, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping recently met, is the Wuhan Optics Valley. This research and development (R&D) cluster is constructed on the same lines as the Optics Valley in Arizona in the western United States. Arizona’s prominent astronomical observatories have spawned a large R&D industrial sector that now serves not only the astronomical and allied sectors but also spin-off manufacturing technology activities. The Wuhan Optics Valley is home to companies undertaking R&D on geospatial information systems, new-age semiconductors, lasers, robotics, photonics, optoelectronics, and other precision instruments
and components vital to astronomy . India is a major contributor to modern astronomy. Along with the numerous astronomical telescopes in Ladakh, Udaipur, Vellore, Pune, Bengaluru, Nainital, and Panchmarhi, a consortium of Indian astronomical institutions are also beginning to construct an advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory in
Maharashtra [12]. The Indian institutions are also part of numerous multinational astronomy projects like the Thirty Meter Telescope in Hawaii, Sloan Digital Sky Survey in New Mexico, and Square Kilometre Array in Australia and South Africa.

Despite these steps, New Delhi needs to do much more. Even though Ladakh lies in the same climatic and geographical precincts as China’s Shiquanhe, New Delhi has not construed an alternative to the Atacama Desert in its territory. Moreover, Delhi has not yet followed up its astronomy programme by establishing R&D clusters that cater to emerging technologies;
tools like Big Data, Robotics, and the Internet of Things are often discussed in government-led fora, but innovative steps have not yet been taken to utilise them to enhance scientific and technological advances beyond astronomy. And unlike Beijing, Washington and Santiago,
New Delhi is yet to fully utilise astronomy as a tool of multilateral diplomacy. Policy lapses, absence of far-sighted science-driven diplomacy, and isolated scientific pursuits will solely keep New Delhi behind Beijing and other capitals in Asia.

India’s ground-based observatories are smaller (less than 10 metres in diameter) than most upcoming and state-of-the-art space-based telescopes – the James Webb Space Telescope, the LUVOIR, or the Origins Space Telescope, all built under NASA’s Strategic Science Missions programme. Space-based telescopes of the same sizes and made of ultramodern components stand a better chance of obtaining clearer imagery because of lack of atmospheric and
surface-based obstructions that ground-based telescopes encounter.

To compete and outrun the productivity of upcoming space-based telescopes, ground-based telescopes will need to grow bigger in diameter and much superior in the quality of observations. Policy changes can help too. To begin with, there must be concerted efforts to designate Ladakh as a dark sky preserve, a restricted area that is free from artificial light pollution. New Delhi must lead an international consortium to build a more sophisticated and extremely massive optical telescope in Ladakh. It should be greater than 100 metres – the largest in its class – so that it could be used to identify extra-solar planets that could potentially host life, observe the ancient universe, and detect astronomical chemistry connected with origin of life on Earth.

Apart from enabling such path-breaking scientific discoveries, cutting-edge astronomy will stimulate technological, economic and human resource development. All these are high priorities for New Delhi. It must capitalise on its proximity to the Himalayas. High-end astronomical pursuits will immensely contribute to India’s growth and make it an indispensable global power.