A US official who spoke with Fox News has just confirmed what we reported with plenty of details on Thursday: The 28 Russian Sukhoi jets hid under radar signature of cargo planes and made a stopover in Iran en route to Syria.
As already explained, the entire operation was closely monitored by the Israeli Air Force, which during and after the deployment launched several missions of G550 Eitam CAEW (Conformal Airborne Early Warning) and G550 Shavit ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) aircraft off Lebanon to gather intelligence on the Russians.
But the Israeli spyplanes were not "watching" only the Sukhoi Su-30, Su-24, and Su-25 planes deploying to Latakia: They were most probably more interested in the Syrian Arab Air Force aircraft that were launched to greet and escort the Russians into the Syrian airspace.
In fact, it seems that most if not all the formations of combat planes trailing the Il-76 cargo planes, were intercepted and escorted to Latakia by Syrian planes, including SyAAF Mig-29 Fulcrum jets, according to a source who spoke with The Aviationist under the condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, the Russian planes deployed to Syria have reportedly flown their first local (familiarization) sorties.
It's not clear whether they were accompanied by Syrian planes, but, for sure, Israeli ISR (intelligence surveillance reconnaissance) assets were pretty active all day on Thursday, circling between Cyprus and Lebanon as their tracks collected by ADS-B on FlightRadar24.com show. Closely monitoring the Russians? Or the Syrian Migs? Most probably, both.
