BUK-M3
Viktor Ozerov, Chairman of the Russian Federation Council Defense and Security Committee, said that Russia may provide air defense systems to Syria in the event of an agreement with the Syrian side, according to Sputnik news agency.
“If these systems are issued, there will be nothing unusual in this export process,” he said, adding that “Syria is fighting terrorism and Russia is assisting it in carrying out counterterrorism missions.” He stressed that “this will not violate the principles of International law and UN Security Council “, since these weapons are defensive and not offensive.
It’s worth to mention that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad announced during a meeting with a group of Russian media outlets that Syria had lost more than 50% of its air defense capabilities as a result of the ongoing war. He also asserted that Russian have make up a part of these losses.
“This is always the case, before the war and during the war. Of course, we need more weapons after the war because of consumption . This is part of the daily relationship between the defense ministries in Russia and Syria,” President Assad said.
TOR-M2E
There have been some reports suggesting that Syria may buy modern air defense systems from Russia, including TOR-M2E medium altitude, short-range surface-to-air missile system, and BUK air defense systems. It’s believed that the version that was referred to is the latest BUK-M3 armed with 9M317M missile that has the ability to intercept cruise missiles such as the American Tomahawk, which was used against the Al-Sha’ayrat airbase on April 7.
