Blowback from Western Strikes Intensifies; Syria Recovers Two Unexploded U.S. Cruise Missiles, Sends to Russia for Analysis

The joint U.S., British and French missile strike on Syria carried out on April 14th 2018 have had a number of negative repercussions for the Western powers due to the Russian and Syrian responses. With Syria’s armed forces having reportedly intercepted the vast majority of Western missiles the effect of the attack was largely blunted while the Western bloc’s latest cruise missiles were revealed to have failed against Cold War era defences long considered obsolete. Russia’s response to the attack meanwhile is set to further weaken the position of the Western bloc and its allies, both in Syria and elsewhere, with Moscow indicating it is willing to provide Syria and possibly even North Korea and Iran with more advanced air defence systems to deter further unilateral Western attacks.

On April 19th reports emerged from the Syrian Defence Ministry indicating further blowback from the Western missile strike, which would serve to further strengthen the position of Syria, Russia and their allies. A defence ministry source stated regarding a formidable asset obtained by the Syrian armed forces in the aftermath of the attack: "Two cruise missiles that did not detonate during the U.S. missile strike on Syria overnight to April 14 were found by the Syrian military. Both are in rather good condition. These missiles were handed over to Russian officer the day before yesterday (April 17)," the source reported, adding that both missiles “were sent to Russia by plane yesterday (April 18)." The Western powers deployed some of their most advanced cruise missile systems, including all new U.S. JASSM-ER and French Scalp cruise missiles, with U.S. President Donald Trump referring to the new platforms used in the attack as "nice and new and smart.”

With these advanced weapons having fallen into Russian hands for study, it represents a considerable loss for Western defence industries. Viktor Murakhovsky, a member of the advisory council of the Russian Military Industrial Commission, stated regarding the handover of American missiles by Syria and their potential uses for Russia's defence industries: “These findings may be very useful for our country. Russian experts do not copy western arms patterns, since we have our own development strategy, but it will be interesting for them to get acquainted with the latest western developments in this field. Some missiles, used to strike Syria, were not new, while others were exploited for the first time... It would be interesting to look at the American missile — JASSM-ER — that the U.S. used in the battlefield for the first time. Studying these rockets will help Russia improve its missile defense systems and electronic warfare systems.” Russia can not only potentially advance its own cruise missile program with reverse engineered Western technologies, but it can also develop more effective countermeasures to these Western platforms which it can share with a number of potential Western adversaries including China, North Korea and Iran.