Russian Made Syrian Missiles: Another Threat To Israel?

 Russia, recently, supplied two Bastion coastal missile systems to Syria, concluding a controversial $300 million arms deal inked with the Syrian government five years ago. Russian sources claim the new missile system will “enable Syria to protect its entire coast from a possible seaborne attack”, the delivery of these medium range shore-based anti-ship missile system is taking place as the Syrian regime is extremely unstable. If the Assad regime falls, these weapons could be transferred to his allies – Iranian backed Hezbollah, or fall into the hands of extremist islamic factions fighting the regime.

The missile Yakhont ( SSN-26)  for instance is considered by the Israelis as a threat to their naval forces and their drilling platforms in the Cypriot and Israeli exclusive economic zones, as this missile system is in a position to hit such targets with relative ease.

However, the Israeli navy is downplaying this new threat by insisting that it is in a position that it can face pretty well anything. The anti-missile system Barak 8 along with other weapons are being developed precisely for threats of this type.