Twelve air forces crowd Syrian skies. Israel-Russian hot line may channel coordination
- 9 years ago
On Sunday, Oct. 18, Russian and Israeli air force headquarters near Latakia in Syria and Tel Aviv began practicing procedures for using the hot line they established last week to coordinate their operations in Syrian skies.
On Oct 15, the defense ministry in Moscow confirmed that "mutual information-sharing on the actions of aircraft has been established" to avoid clashes in the skies of Syria "between the Russian aviation command center at the Hmeimim air base and a command post of the Israeli air force."
Neither did Ankara have the option of resorting to a Washington line to the Kremlin, since the Obama administration had spurned Moscow's proposal to send a military delegation to Washington for setting up a military coordination mechanism for their aerial operations over Syria.
Syrian air space is frequented by the fighters, heavy bombers, transports and UAVs of a dozen air forces: Syria, Russia the US, Israel, Turkey and Iran as well as the US-led coalition planes of Canada, France, Australia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
On Oct 15, the defense ministry in Moscow confirmed that "mutual information-sharing on the actions of aircraft has been established" to avoid clashes in the skies of Syria "between the Russian aviation command center at the Hmeimim air base and a command post of the Israeli air force."
Neither did Ankara have the option of resorting to a Washington line to the Kremlin, since the Obama administration had spurned Moscow's proposal to send a military delegation to Washington for setting up a military coordination mechanism for their aerial operations over Syria.
Syrian air space is frequented by the fighters, heavy bombers, transports and UAVs of a dozen air forces: Syria, Russia the US, Israel, Turkey and Iran as well as the US-led coalition planes of Canada, France, Australia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.