A missile has exploded in Northern Cyprus, according to Deputy Prime Minister of Northern Cyprus Kudret Özersay.
The missile fell on a mountainside around 1 am on Monday. The impact reportedly set hills ablaze and was heard for miles around.
No casualties have been reported.
“The first assessment is that a Russian-made missile which was part of the air defense system that took place last night in the face of an air strike against Syria, completed its range and fell into our country after it missed,” Turkish Cypriot Foreign Minister Kudret Ozersay said in a post on Facebook.
“An assessment from the pictures made public shows the base of its wings. It has Russian writing on it, so it suggests it is Russian made. Syria uses Russian-made missiles, so a not-so-safe assessment would be it was an S-200 missile,” Pentaras, a retired General, told Sigma TV in Cyprus, as reported by Reuters.
“Right now we can’t be absolute but from the pictures and the inscriptions it appears to be an S-200,” analyst Zenonas Tziarras of the Geopolitical Cyprus think-tank told Reuters.
Can an S400 shoot down an S200. Time will tell ?.. Thankfully no one was hurt but what if this had hit a town or even a sovereign base…
You really would think when the fuel ran out it would self detonate.
That would presuppose that the people designing and building it or firing it actually cared about where it might eventually fall when it missed.
It would also be interesting to know what the behavior of NATO Ground to Air Missiles is in the same scenario.
The S-200 was designed in the 50s and early 60s. Solely for the purpose blowing B52s and Vulcans out of the sky. Features such as self-detonation and even IFF discrimination were not considered priorities.
The only countries that ever used these systems against fighters instead of bombers successfully had to do so by deploying the cleverly (Vietnam).
Mostly it is countries like Syria who just can’t afford/isn’t allowed access to better. So they launch whatever they can.
Its a semi active radar homer. Sea Dart was semi active and if you cut off the J band signal the missile self destructed.
It would seem that this 1960s cira s200 missile does not have such a failsafe or it didnt work when the fuel ran out.
The missile was in all likelihood time expired so the chance of it working totally to spec is rather slim.
Shows you how far these old 2nd Generation soviet liquid fuelled SAM could go on a ballistic trajectory certainly!
If it was a S200 or even an S300, both of these missile have radio command guidance for both mid-flight corrections, re-targeting or detonation. So either the destruction command was not transmitted or the missile failed to respond.
The missile was fired as part of a response against Israeli attacks targeting areas around Homs.
Akrotiri is approximately 340kms from Homs, so “should” be just out of range of the S200.
Fired at an Israeli target? F35 maybe? Could be a F-15 I guess…
Most probably, as they were attacking Iranian targets around Homs and Damascus last night.
I wonder if RAF Akrotiri has any Army operated Rapier systems. Not that it would be able to shoot down any longer range errant missiles from the Syrian civil war landing in and around the RAF Akrotiri base area.
No.
The Cyprus National Guard has a capable array of modern SAM systems should they be needed .I would have thought TRNC (Northern Cyprus) to be similarly equipped.
Looks a bit like the old Bristol Bloodhound SAM
I’m more comfortable with the old Cold War NATO name for these, SA2 I think.
Others were SA3 SA5 SA10 SA12. SA5 had a humongous range.
Sounds like a lucky escape for anyone on the ground,seeing as its Holiday Peak season there must be a lot of commercial Air Traffic flying into and out of Cyprus,the last thing the world needs is another MH17 incident.
Looks like Putin still hasn’t let the Syrians control their S300s. lol
From my understanding most Syrian C300 units completed training but still work under Russian supervision, there is a limited supply of missiles so held for most important duties only, they have plenty of C200 launchers and missiles, the radars etc have been upgraded to a degree so they can integrate into the AD network, the missiles are old stock but they have plenty of them
These Israeli strikes are getting expensive since they appear to only be using long range missiles to attack Syrian targets. Looks like the days of dropping LGBs and JDAMs might be over for the Israelis.