Super & Greyhound.

This is coolbert:

 Thanks to the DEBKAfile we have the update and intel on the shoot-down of that Turkish Phantom jet that has caused a lot of consternation in some quarters!

"Newly-supplied Russian anti-air missile downed Turkish warplane"

"23 June. Syria Friday shot down the Turkish Super Phantom jet with the sophisticated self-propelled medium range anti-air Pantsur-1 missile recently supplied by Russia. Short of time to master the improved missile system, the Syrian crews would have called on their Russian instructors to help launch them."

That Turkish jet described as a Super Phantom [F-4]!

 That Syrian air defense weaponry the most up to date and sophisticated Russian hardware available, a SA-22 "Greyhound".

 1. That Super Phantom an upgrade of the original Phantom F-4 the original airplane as coming off the drawing boards in the late 1950's!!

Improved to include:

 * New upgraded and much improved engines.

"a pair of Pratt & Whitney PW1120 turbofans . . . The PW1120 turbofan was 40 inches shorter than the J79 and 25 percent lighter in weight. However, it had 35 percent greater dry thrust and 30 percent greater afterburner thrust."

* New upgraded and improved fuel tank. 

"The aircraft [Super Phantom] was also to have had a 1100-US gallon conformal fuel tank fitted onto its belly."

"Such a tank could carry nearly twice the fuel of the standard centerline drop tank of the Phantom and offered only 29 percent of the drag."

* New upgraded and improved avionics. 

" The electronics were also to have been upgraded . . . options being proposed were the fitting of a GEC heads-up display, a Honeywell 423 ring laser gyro inertial navigational system, and APG-65 radar."

2. The Russian SA-22 "Greyhound" the newest and latest anti-aircraft system available?

Able to engage targets using either MISSILES OR GUNS!! Self-propelled and totally self-contained and very formidable.

 "It is a short to medium range ground based air defence system, wheeled, tracked or stationary with two to three operators. Its air defense consists of automatic anti-aircraft guns and surface-to-air-missiles with radar or optical target-tracking and radio-command guidance . . . Aerial targets include . . . all types of aircraft, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, cruise missiles and air-to-ground precision guided weapons. The system is able to defend against stealth aircraft."

AND IN THIS PARTICULAR INSTANCE RUSSIANS STANDING ALONGSIDE THE SYRIAN TELLING THE LATTER WHEN TO PRESS THE BUTTON??

DEBKA has "sources" and now you the devoted reader to the blog know the rest of the story and thanks to DEBKA! Perhaps David P. Goldman [Spengler] is wrong from time to time!!

 coolbert.