I am not sure how reliable is that information.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article37743798.html
Turkish defense radar locked on Russian fighter as it bombed Syrian town

Reading from a report, he said the Russian aircraft had violated Turkish air space by five miles and that Turkish jets had scrambled, but that the Russian aircraft had returned to Syrian airspace before they could respond

Pavel Felgenhauer has now positive view about the military capability. the guy sitting in Qatar blames Israel responsible for allowing Russia entrance to Syria as if Israel is gate keeper of Middleast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnrJkSUrQvg

Whilst Russia has little external debt, it is much more difficult for it to get foreign credit because it has to pay very high interest. By contrast, country like Germany gets essentially free money from the markets so they don’t have to worry about debt. So, to Russia little debt can prove more troublesome than larger debt to some Western countries.

why will some one will give loans to Germany at zero percent that is most likely going to get repaid in inflation adjusted depreciating euros. think harder. the right to get low interest money brings alot of obligations and constraints on country.

For the short ranges needed to operate combat aircrafts in Syria, wont it be suitable to use long range artillery/MRLS etc instead with support from target acquisition from drones etc? Should be much cheaper. Like say bombing some IS positions in the vicinity of the Airbase etc…

thats the key. introducing alot of MSTA-S, Tornado-G.

If you are talking about on paper, of course it is. Then again what difference does it make, really? You are missing my point. Actual performance does not matter here.

Free Syrians, Kurds, Turkmens, Al Qeadah, El Nusra, PYK, ISIS etc etc. NONE have a single aircraft to speak of. So for “air defence” actual target is US, and politically opposing neighbors, Turkey and Israel. Militarily, US has George HW Bush carrier group, along with 100+ USAF aircraft stationed on various bases. TuAF can field more than 300, IDF can field close to 400 combat aircraft. Russia can bring 4, 10, 30, or ALL Su-30SMs they have built so far, and it would be still insufficent to defend againist, or achieve air superiority over these parties.

Russia’s show of force in Syria relies upon not their military strength in region but the assumption of Russias overall strength would grant them immunity aganist any country. This is a valid assumption, so there will not be any air-to-air combat in Syria anyway. So why use Su-30SM? MiG-29SMT can carry the Russian the flag at half to 1/3 cost.

Only valid reason for using Su-30SM is field testing. They’ve already brought in 4, they can test them anyway they like.

If you are going by numbers than 40 Su-30SM can carry 400 missiles plus all the self defensive suits. plus all the SAMs in area. and which airforce have ability to enter with 100 aircrafts in single take off. Su-30 is the best choice. as it has twin seats that act like command center. Radar much bigger simultaneous tracking and further away almost can see aircrafts taking at airbases. and if some has wishfull thinking even coming close it can smash it with much greater energy of afterburner use.

Lets play it in your way then; No reality, only shooting game…

Assuming with only 4 truly Air-to-Air capable aircraft, Russians manage to bypass two dozen F-16s conducting CAP and GAI and bomb Turkish soil, then what happens? If you look at the map, Latakia directly borders Hatay. Thanks to ongoing clashes, bulk of 106th Artillery Regiment sits ~2,9 km away from the border with more than 90 self propelled artillery and around 60 multi-rocket launchers. Latakia airbase Russians based is just 53 km away from their position, also in range of SRBMs of 2 additional rocket battallions of 7th corps, lifting total SRBM count that can target Latakia airport to around 120. This combined firepower can shell/bomb entire Russian presence in Syria to extinction in what? 20 minutes?

you only look at one side of map. what about the other side.
how you are going to shot down Su-30SM/Su-34?. They have more electronic warfare power than EA-18G. and each of them can routinely carry 6 to 12AAM with radar ranges nearly equal to AWACS with greater loiter time so it can chose when to engage afterburner for optimum shot. your old F-16 are basically an MIG-21 are infront of them.

And in the aftermath, Turkey can easily play “self-defense” card to UN, and “mutual defense” card to NATO, and get away with such atrocity.

No one will come to your rescue no matter how many self defense cards you play. Russia has capability to destroy Turkish and Israel airforce on the ground and that include the factories that assemble and upgrade fighters. you will be forever defense less and no external financial power will or can rehabilitate you. because of your poor performance in current conflict.

I am pretty curious about the exact action Russians are planning. Surely mere bombing of a few camps and trucks will not win them this war.

Exact planning? who usually tell exact planning. they are in this war to reshape Middleast not just win this war. only wishfull thinking can write such posts.

OT Question is hardly something to be discussed.

Militarily, ie on paper confrontation? Are you kidding? Russian expedition consists of what; 4 Su-30SMs, 6 or so Su-34s, a dozen Su-24s and a dozen Su-25s, an S-300 battery 9 or so Tanks and several APCs. You don’t need any asset of US Military. Even one tenth of Turkish Armed Forces or Israeli Defense Forces, who are already in the region, can wipe such force several times over.

how you are going to shot down Su-30SM/Su-34?. They have more electronic warfare power than EA-18G. and each of them can routinely carry 8 to 12AAM with radar ranges nearly equal to AWACS with greater loiter time so it can chose when to engage afterburner for optimum shot.
there is ship in water with S300F
Russia has capability to destroy Turkish and Israel airforce on the ground and that include the factories that assemble and upgrade fighters.
Russia can recover from few missiles thrown at it but Turkey/Israel cant from war with Russia. the economic system is extremely vulnerable.

After four years of the devastating civil war in a fragmented country, it’s not surprising to see most that remain in the fight turning to religion for motivation. All those years of secularism are probably equated by many with failures (e.g. in wars with Israel, in the economical development, etc.), corruption and oppression.

I wonder what the Russian plan is – is it just to force the rebels to negotiations? I’m not sure if the regime forces can muster enough troops for some bigger offensives and the Russians are not mentioning any ground troop deployments apart from those needed to secure the bases. And the question is what would the US do.. They should have introduced some No-Fly zones to block the punishing bombardments by the regime long before as I don’t see it possible now that the Russians deployed. The ‘moderate’ rebels might be very easily left hung out to dry by the feeble US administration and if the Syrian counter offensive following the Russian bombardments is successful in routing these rebel groups, I could see the influence of ISIS on the rise.

It says Iranian troops will joing it to take advantage of airstrikes. I think Ruaf and Volga Denpr can quickly assemble larger number of ground troops from Middleast.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/01/us-mideast-crisis-russia-syria-idUSKCN0RV41O20151001

I think this is a cultural issue. We in the west are used to footage from UAVs that is of the target being aimed at. We are also used to high precision strikes with great quality camera work, and at the moment we are getting scenic Syrian countryside vistas in low definition with unguided bombs and rockets (its definitely fuel air by the way, there are two blasts within the same impact and a wide overpressure).

rockets and unguided bombs can also be accurate. they can be mass produced cheaper and quicker and since this can become multi year compaign there is no point in using any PGM unless high value target at standoff distance with higher speed need to be taken out.

We are also not used to the first airstrikes demolishing residential areas.

this videos primary audience is Arab street.

Having said which, the media would be incredibly quick to jump on civilian casualties caused by allied bombing, and if it were happening I would expect coverage similar to that scene in Gaza.

Too much coverage will inflame the islamist and there first target will be there own governments for failing to stop Russia strikes. It is in west own interest to minimize coverage.