January 13, 2005 :: News
The Russian newspaper Kommersant recently reported of Russian plans to sell a number of missile systems to Syria, a state sponsor of terrorism and in particular Hezbollah. These included the shoulder-fired SS-18 Igla anti-aircraft missiles, but also and more significantly, eighteen of Russia’s new and made-for-export SS-26 Iskander missile, and the S-300PMU-2 (SA-10) air and missile defense system, similar to that which rings Moscow, and other systems. The S-300PMU-2 system is one of Moscow’s most developed air and missile defense systems. The SS-26 has increasingly made the news for its touted capabilities to evade other air-defenses—possibly the U.S. Patriot interceptors—and the Russian’s plans to market it widely, including in the middle east. The export version of the SS-26 Iskander missile has a reported range of 280 km, sufficient for Syria to strike nearly all of Israel.
At this time, negative publicity may be sufficient reason for Russia to back out of the missile deal, but it nevertheless serves as yet another example of Russia’s long track record of being willing to proliferate missiles and missile technology throughout the world.
Since the original report of the sale, the governments of both Israel and the United States have put pressure on Russia to suspend any such sales. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said that, “We spoke to the Russians and we asked them to scrap this contract,” and noted that “Syria is a country that supports terrorism and continually transfers weapons to Hezbollah.” Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is also reported to have sent Russian President Putin a message asking for an stop to the planned missile transfers.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher commented that “U.S. policy on this is very clear: We’re against the sale of weaponry to Syria, against the sale of lethal military equipment to Syria, which is a state sponsor of terrorism.” Boucher added that “We think those kinds of sales are not appropriate. The Russians know about this policy. They know about our views.”
Even European Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, warned that the missile sales could disrupt Mideast peace efforts: “I trust that President Putin will not do anything that will go against the stability of the region, which is as much an interest for him as it is an interest for us.”
According to the London Guardian and Israeli news reports, however, a contract concerning the SS-18 shoulder-fired missiles has already been signed. Speculation has been that contracts concerning the other missiles could take place when Syrian President Assad visits Russia January 24-28.
Russian Minister of Defense Sergey Ivanov, however, visiting in Washington, strongly denied that the missile sales would take place. At the same time, he pointed out that sale of such missiles as the Iskander would not technically violate any international laws. His denials are being widely carried by a number of Russian media newspapers, as well as those worldwide. However, Interfax today carries comments by a Russian academic, vice-president of the Russian Academy of Geopolitical Problems, Colonel Vladimir Anokhin, arguing that despite Syria’s sponsorship of terrorism, sales of such weaponry would be both legitimate and beneficial to both countries.
Original Report from Kommersant:
Russian Missiles Chill Russian-Israeli Relations
A major scandal erupted between Russia and Israel in the first few days of January 2005. In Jerusalem, they started talking about how relations between the two countries were on the verge of being severed. On January 2, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon held a secret cabinet meeting on the “Russian problem”. Meeting participants signed a statement of nondisclosure. Israeli ambassador to Russia Arkady Mil-Man was urgently summoned to Jerusalem. According to Kommersant’s information, this was Israel’s reaction to Russia’s plans to sell Syria the latest weapon — Iskander-E high-accuracy tactical missile systems capable of striking targets at ranges of up to 280 km. …
Israeli analysts advanced numerous theories about what could have so suddenly undermined the dynamically developing relations between the two countries. Some said this might be another spy scandal, evidently much more serious than previous ones (last year the Israelis accused First Secretary of the Russian Embassy Andrey Mochalov and journalist Konstantin Kapitonov of espionage). Others maintained that the crisis was somehow connected with the YUKOS affair and Group MENATEP shareholder Leonid Nevzlin, who lives in Israel. However, the most convincing theory was that only Russia’s friendship with Israel’s enemies could actually have provoked the crisis. The Israeli leadership has always kept a close watch on Russia’s military and technical cooperation with Arab countries and Iran, so that each new contract has been carefully studied for threats to Israel’s security and the correlation of forces in the Middle East.
And in fact, as Kommersant has learned, the crisis in bilateral relations is the result of Russia’s plans to sell Syria the latest Iskander-E tactical missile system. Israel is extremely alarmed by the fact that if the Iskander were deployed, for example, close to the demarcation line in the area of the Golan Heights, Israel’s entire territory would be within striking distance of the missiles, including the Negev Desert, where the Dimona nuclear facility is located, and all the major cities, except for the port of Eilat on the Red Sea.
The Iskander high-accuracy tactical missile system was developed at the Kolomensky Mechanical Engineering Office in the mid-1990s. It has a three-man launch crew. The weight of an Iskander-M mobile launch pad with two missiles is 40 tons. The missile has a starting weight of 3800 kg and a range of 50 to 280 km. The weight of the warhead is 480 kg. The missile is equipped with a self-contained inertial guidance system operating in combination with an optical homing head. As a result, the Iskander-M has a target striking accuracy of 2 m. Production of the solid-fuel missiles for the Iskander system has been expanded at the Votkinsk Engineering Plant (Udmurtia). The export version of the system (Iskander-E) will be equipped with one missile, but with an accuracy an order of magnitude less than the Iskander-M.
The Russian military completed official testing of the system in August 2004, which RF Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov and Chief of General Staff Yury Baluevsky reported personally to President Vladimir Putin. According to the Defense Ministry’s plans, the first two Iskander-M launch pads should be armed this year. However, an order for eight to ten pads was needed to set up serial production. According to Kommersant’s information, it was Syria that saved the day. Two years ago, Damascus sent a request to Moscow for the delivery of 18 Iskander-E missile systems. But at that time the system had still not undergone testing and selling it was out of the question. As a result, Syria signed contracts only for delivery of Kornet-E and Metis-M antitank missiles for $65 million and $73 million, respectively.
According to Kommersant’s information, Moscow informed Damascus of the completion of tests of the Iskander in October and last week received a reply confirming Syria’s interest in buying not only Iskanders, but also S300PMU2 Favorit and Top-M1 anti-aircraft systems, as well as in additional purchases of Kornets and Metis.
However, yesterday the Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation (MTC) with Foreign States and the state company Rosoboronexport refused to comment to the Kommersant correspondent not only on the classification of the armaments preparing for delivery being discussed by Moscow and Damascus, but also on the very fact of Russian—Syrian negotiations in the area of MTC.
We note that the possible delivery of Iskanders to Syria could lead to complications not only in Russian—Israeli relations. The United States will certainly side with its ally. Several years ago, Washington imposed sanctions against the Tula Instrument-Making Design Bureau for the sale of anti-tank missiles to Syria. Now, the matter concerns a far more powerful impact weapon. And it is logical to assume that the US might take much more decisive measures that will affect not just one separate company but Russia as a whole.
(Article)» January 12: Original report of planned missile sales by Russian newspaper Kommersant
» January 13: Ivanov denies plans to proliferate Iskanders to Syria
» January 12: Interfax: Colonel Vladimir Anokhin defends missile sales to Syria
» More stories on: Proliferation, Russia, Syria, Terrorism
» Missile details: SS-26
» Missile system details for: S-300P (SA-10 Grumble)
