German-owned Patriot missiles stationed in Turkey were briefly taken over by hackers, according to media reports on Tuesday.
The attack took place on anti-aircraft ‘Patriot’ missiles on the Syrian border. The American-made weapons had been stationed there by the Bundeswehr (German army) to protect Nato ally Turkey.
According to the civil service magazine, the missile system carried out “unexplained” orders. It was not immediately clear when these orders were carried out and what they were.
The magazine speculates about two weak spots in the missile system which could be exploited by hackers.
One such weakness is the Sensor-Shooter-Interoperability (SSI) which exchanges real time information between the missile launcher and its control system.
The second exposed point is a computer chip which controls the guidance of the weapon.
Attackers might have gained access in two different ways, one that takes over the operating of the missile system and one that steals data from it.
The patriot missile has been in service in the US army since 1984 and was first used in operation in the first Gulf war in 1991.
In 2012 Turkey asked that its Nato partners support it by stationing Patriot missile systems there, after the civil war in Syria drew closer to its southern border.
In June 2015 Germany announced that it would replace its Patriot missiles with MEADS, an air defence system designed in cooperation with the USA and Italy.
Russia lifted a ban on sending Iran its sophisticated S-300 surface-to-air missile system, officials said Monday. The weapons could be shipped shortly, giving Tehran a new way to defend itself against any future bombing campaign.
The decision was made as Iran continues to negotiate with the United States and five other world powers about its nuclear program in return for an easing of sanctions.
The S-300 missile system is able to hit multiple targets at once, and is typically launched from the back of a truck. The missiles can target aircraft and missiles flying more than 16 miles high, according to specifications published by the American Federation of Scientists, a nonprofit organization that provides analysis on national security issues.
Russia signed an $800 million deal to deliver S-300s to Iran in 2007, but decided to halt the weapons delivery after the United States and Israel protested that Tehran could use them to protect its nuclear facilities. Russian officials said Monday that sending the missile system to Iran wouldn’t jeopardize security in the region.
The Kremlin wanted to sell the system to Syria in 2013, but came under pressure. Secretary of State John F. Kerry warned Russia at the time.
Israeli officials also warned that if Russia completed the S-300 deal with Syria, they would use military force to ensure the system didn’t become operational.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to lift the ban on supplies of S-300 air defense missile systems to Iran.
“The decree cancels the ban from transit through Russia (including by air), transportation outside the territory of Russia to the Islamic Republic of Iran and also handover to the Islamic Republic of Iran outside the territory of Russia with the use of ships and aircraft flying the Russian state flag of the air defense missile systems S-300,” the Kremlin’s press-service has said.
The decree is effective immediately.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is expected to make a statement on the decision to lift the ban soon.
It introduces amendments to the presidential decree of September 22, 2010 on measures for implementing the UN Security Council’s Resolution 1929 of June 9 2010. The sub-item concerning S-300 has been removed from it.
The implementation of the Russian-Iranian contract of 2007 for supplying the S-300 systems was suspended following the introduction of sanctions against Iran in September 2010. Tehran later protested that decision in court.
Shortly after Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu visited Iran last January the US Department of State said that supplies of Russian air defense systems to Iran would be unacceptable. In the meantime, Iran has repeatedly voiced the hope Russia would eventually agree to provide the launchers.
The head of the Rostech corporation, Sergey Chemezov, in February said that Russia had offered Tehran to buy the upgraded system Antey-2500 instead of S-300 and that Iran was still considering that option and remained undecided. The US Department of State said it had no objections to Russia’s alternative proposal to Iran.
S-300 systems (NATO reporting name SA-10 Grumble) are designed to defend major facilities from air attacks. They are considered to be some of the world’s most capable anti-aircraft missile systems.
Meanwhile the Pentagon slammed the Russian move to sell missiles to Iran.
The skipper of a fishing boat says he was fired upon by a warship during a naval exercise near Cape Agulhas.
The Task Group comprises the flagship Hessen and frigates Karlsruhe and Brandenburg about 20 nautical miles offshore. The Brandenburg is essentially a supply ship. Built in 1984, the Karlsruhe is a Bremen-class frigate and the Hessen is a more modern (2006) Sachsen-class frigate.
The Cape Times reported on Friday that the incident happened during a joint naval exercise between the SA Navy and German navy early on Wednesday morning.
Commercial fisherman Anthony Day told the newspaper he and nine crew members set off from Struisbaai harbour at about 02:30 in his 28-foot ski boat.
He headed in the opposite direction from the Denel missile testing range at De Hoop, but later saw a ship approaching. Next thing three heavy-calibre shots went off in quick succession, landing about 15 metres from them.
The two navies fired their surface-to-air missile systems and shot at surface targets.
The German RIM-7 Sea Sparrow ship-borne short-range anti-aircraft and anti-missile weapon system and the RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) infrared homing surface-to-air missile were used, along with a 76 mm gun and smaller calibre weapons.
The SA Navy fired two Umkhonto vertically-launched, high-velocity, infrared homing surface-to-air missiles manufactured by Denel Dynamics, and also used a 76 mm gun and smaller weapons.
The fishing boat immediately switched on deck lights and tried to radio the vessel but got no response. He radioed Cape Town Radio telling them he’d been shot at.
Cape Town Radio then made contact with the military vessel. The commander had said the shots had been fired in error. The SA Navy and German navy told the Cape Times they were unaware of the incident and would release a statement.
Russian military exercises this week range from the Arctic to the Pacific Ocean and involve tens of thousands of troops, the Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
The Kremlin has voiced concern about U.S. plans to beef up its military presence near Russia’s borders. Later this month, U.S. troops are holding joint exercises with forces from EU nations Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Four Polish NATO MiG-29s flew training missions in Lithuania on Monday, under the command and control of an alliance AWACS surveillance aircraft in a small corridor between Belarus and the Kaliningrad region.
Monday’s AWACS mission was flying from Oerland airbase, near Trondheim in Norway. The AWACS flights were part of efforts to bolster NATO members, particularly the Baltic states.
AP reported that Russia plans to station state-of-the art missiles in its westernmost Baltic exclave and deploy nuclear-capable bombers to Crimea in response.
The Iskander missiles will be sent to the Kaliningrad region that borders NATO members Poland and Lithuania as part of the maneuvers, said a Defense Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to comment publicly.
The official also said Russia will deploy long-range, nuclear-capable Tu-22M3 bombers to Crimea, on the Black Sea peninsula.
In a statement, the Defense Ministry said the Baltic Fleet, the Southern Military District and the Airborne Forces have been brought to the highest stage of combat readiness and have started moving to shooting ranges as part of the drills.
The wide-ranging exercise started Monday, when President Vladimir Putin ordered the Northern Fleet and other military forces on combat alert as part of the exercise in the Arctic. Other units in the Pacific region, southern Siberia and southwestern Russia also launched drills.
The Iskander missiles deployment to Kaliningrad reflects Moscow’s readiness in response to NATO moves to deploy forces closer to Russia’s borders.
The missiles, which are capable of hitting enemy targets up to 500 kilometers (310 miles away) with high precision, can be equipped with a nuclear or a conventional warhead. From Kaliningrad, they could reach several NATO member states.
Meanwhile heavy machine-gun and light artillery fire pounded a district of Donetsk, the biggest city of eastern Ukraine, on Monday and pro-Russian self-defence forces said there has been no lull in the fighting since a February cease-fire.
The Spartak district, adjacent to the city’s now-flattened airport, is one of several sites in eastern Ukraine to have seen continued hostilities between the self-defence forces and the Ukrainian junta since last month’s cease-fire, brokered by France and Germany in the Belarussian capital Minsk.
The cease-fire is broadly holding in the rest of the region, Reuters reported.
The first-ever contract for exports of the S-400 Triumf air defense missile system has been signed.
“A contract between Rosoboronexport and the Chinese Defense Ministry was signed at the beginning of this fall for the delivery of at least six battalions of S-400 air defense missile systems worth of more than $3 billion,” Vedomosti reported on Wednesday.
Negotiations on the delivery of S-400 systems to China had been in progress for several years and the Russian Defense Ministry said in 2011 that exports might begin no earlier than 2016 because the Russian Armed Forces would have to be provided for first, the newspaper said.
The S-400 Triumf air defense missile system is a product of the Almaz-Antei Concern and is based on the S-300 long-range air defense system, one of whose major buyers was the People’s Liberation Army of China.
Rosoboronexport fulfilled the most recent contract for 15 battalions of the S-300PMU-2 air defense missile system in 2010.
Following the breakup of the former Soviet Union, S-300P systems were exported to Vietnam, Algeria, Azerbaijan and Cyprus and systems from the Russian Armed Forces’ stock were supplied to Kazakhstan and Belarus.
The S-300 contract with Iran was cancelled for political reasons in 2010 and the delivery of the air defense missile system to Syria was suspended due to the ongoing civil war.
S-300V systems, another modification of S-300P designed for air defense units of the Ground Forces rather than area air defense, were supplied to Venezuela and Egypt.
Russia’s Borei class strategic submarine, the Alexander Nevsky, is due to launch the Bulava missile later this month, a source in the headquarters of the Russian Navy told TASS on Tuesday.
“It is planned that in late November the Alexander Nevsky will fire the Bulava from the Barents Sea at the Kura test range on the Kamchatka Peninsula,” the source said.
The launch is due on November 28-30. “Like previously, the launch will be made from the submerged position of the submarine,” he added.
The latest launch of the Bulava missile was conducted on October 29. The Yuri Dolgoruky Borei-class strategic nuclear-powered submarine test-launched the missile at the firing range Kura on the Kamchatka Peninsula from the Barents Sea. The Borei-class submarine cruiser had the full set of 16 missiles on board for the first time.
Borei-class submarines armed with ICBMs Bulava are expected to make backbones of Russian marine strategic nuclear forces before 2025 to 2030.
After an abortive test-firing in September 2013, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu ordered to make at least five additional test launches of Bulava.
Russia has sent advanced antiship cruise missiles to Syria, a move that illustrates the depth of its support for the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad, American officials said Thursday.
Russia has previously provided a version of the missiles, called Yakhonts, to Syria. But those delivered recently are outfitted with an advanced radar that makes them more effective, according to American officials who are familiar with classified intelligence reports and would only discuss the shipment on the basis of anonymity.
Unlike Scud and other longer-range surface-to-surface missiles that the Assad government has used against opposition forces, the Yakhont antiship missile system provides the Syrian military a formidable weapon to counter any effort by international forces to reinforce Syrian opposition fighters by imposing a naval embargo, establishing a no-fly zone or carrying out limited airstrikes.
“It enables the regime to deter foreign forces looking to supply the opposition from the sea, or from undertaking a more active role if a no-fly zone or shipping embargo were to be declared at some point,” said Nick Brown, editor in chief of IHS Jane’s International Defense Review. “It’s a real ship killer.”
Jeffrey White, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former senior American intelligence official, said Syria’s strengthened arsenal would “tend to push Western or allied naval activity further off the coast” and was also “a signal of the Russian commitment to the Syrian government.”
The disclosure of the delivery comes as Russia and the United States are planning to convene an international conference that is aimed at ending the brutal conflict in Syria, which has killed more than 70,000. That conference is expected to be held in early June and to include representatives of the Assad government and the Syrian opposition.
Secretary of State John Kerry has repeatedly said that it is the United States’ hope to change Mr. Assad’s “calculations” about his ability to hold on to power so that he will allow negotiations for a political solution to the conflict. Mr. Kerry indicated that he had raised the issue of Russian arms deliveries to Syria during his recent visit to Moscow, but declined to provide details.
“I think we’ve made it crystal clear we would prefer that Russia was not supplying assistance,” he said. “That hasn’t changed.”
American officials have been concerned that the flow of Russian and Iranian arms to Syria will buttress Mr. Assad’s apparent belief that he can prevail militarily.
“This weapons transfer is obviously disappointing and will set back efforts to promote the political transition that is in the best interests of the Syrian people and the region,” Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the senior Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement on Thursday night. “There is now greater urgency for the U.S. to step up assistance to the moderate opposition forces who can lead Syria after Assad.”
Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey and the committee chairman, added in a statement, “Russia is offering cover to a despotic ruler and defending a bankrupt regime.”
Syria ordered the coastal defense version of the Yakhont system from Russia in 2007 and received the first batteries in early 2011, according to Jane’s. The initial order covered 72 missiles, 36 launcher vehicles, and support equipment, and the systems have been displayed in the country.
The batteries are mobile, which makes them more difficult to attack. Each consists of missiles, a three-missile launcher and a command-and-control vehicle.
The missiles are about 22 feet long, carry either a high-explosive or armor-piercing warhead, and have a range of about 180 miles, according to Jane’s.
They can be steered to a target’s general location by longer-range radars, but each missile has its own radar to help evade a ship’s defenses and home in as it approaches its target.
Two senior American officials said that the most recent shipment contained missiles with a more advanced guidance system than earlier shipments.
Russia has longstanding interests in Syria, including a naval base at the Mediterranean port of Tartus.
As the Syria crisis has escalated, Russia has gradually augmented its naval presence in the region. In January, more than two dozen Russian warships sailed to the Black and Mediterranean Seas to take part in what the Defense Ministry said was to be the country’s largest naval exercise in decades, testing the ships’ ability to deploy outside Russian waters.
A month later, after the Black Sea exercises ended, the Russian Defense Ministry news agency said that four large landing vessels were on their way to operations off the coast of Syria.
“Based on the results of the navy exercises in the Black and Mediterranean seas,” the ministry said at the time, “the ministry leadership has taken a decision to continue combat duty by Russian warships in the Mediterranean.”
Two missiles were fired at a Russian passenger plane flying over Syrian territory with 200 people onboard, an informed source in Moscow told Interfax news agency. The source of the attack remains unknown.
“Syrian [officials] informed us that on Monday morning, unidentified forces launched two ground-to-air missiles which exploded in the air very close to a civilian aircraft belonging to a Russian airline,” the source told the Russian agency.
The pilots managed to maneuver the plane in time however, “saving the lives of passengers.”
It is believed the aircraft was intentionally targeted in the attempted strike, “but it remains unclear whether the attackers knew whether it was Russian or not,” the source added.
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