Popular Mechanics:
Despite several days of warning and Russian claims otherwise, Syrian air defenses launched only two missiles during strikes by the United States, United Kingdom, and France to destroy the country’s chemical weapons capability. Both missiles missed the incoming cruise missiles. Syrian forces fired several dozen other missiles after the strikes were over when there was nothing left to hit.
The Daily Beast reports that Syrian air defenses, largely consisting of Cold War era air defense radars and missiles, launched only two surface-to-air missiles against the barrage of 105 JASSM, Tomahawk, SCALP, and Storm Shadow missiles that struck targets throughout the country on April 13th. The cruise missiles struck three chemical weapons development and storage facilities across Syria.
It’s not clear why the two missiles that were fired during the strikes were launched in the first place. Syrian air defenses could have caught a fleeting glimpse of some of the cruise missiles on radar, then lost them when the low-flying missiles were masked from radar by nearby terrain.
