The Russians have moved some IL-20 surveillance aircraft, Krasukha-4 jammers into Syria to complement the AN 400 anti-aircraft missiles. [see the articles by Elias Groll at http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/10/06/spy-planes-signal-jammers-and-putins-high-tech-war-in-syria/ and Sputnik's article at http://inserbia.info/today/2015/10/russian-electronic-warfare-systems-spotted-in-syria/ ]. If, as the Foreign Policy article says, using it to fight ISIS, it is a little overkill. ISIS has no Air Force.
Russia must have something else in mind, dragging this kind of hardware into a war zone where the enemy has tanks and truck-mounted artillary at the high end of their arsenal. The IL-20s could certainly listen to ISIS traffic and maybe even friendly troops of other nations in the area, but something like jammers and anti-aircraft systems are aimed at other flyers in the area. That would be an alliance of countries now bombing ISIS, and Turkey's F-16s that shot down a Russian fighter-bomber. Jammers and anti-aircraft missiles will make that kind of strike a little more interesting. For the Russians, these kinds of gadgets are big targets. The Turkmen already showed they can blow up a big target when they fired a missile at a Russian helicopter sitting on the ground. Jammers have to stop to set up their antenna. Let's see how long they last in that hostile environment.
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