UK adds firepower over Syria but impact will be 'marginal'

LONDON (AFP) - Britain will bring extra precision firepower to the Syria air campaign but its participation will be no game-changer, according to experts who questioned the effectiveness of coalition air strikes in the war-torn country.

Following the green light from lawmakers Wednesday for strikes on Syria, a total of 16 Royal Air Force warplanes will be available to bomb Islamic State (IS) group targets in Syria.

"It will not make a big operational difference," said Malcolm Chalmers, research director at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a think tank.

Julian Lewis, the Conservative chairman of the Commons defence select committee, said: "The difference the UK can make by joining the bombing effort to the challenge of eliminating IS will be highly marginal".

Before the vote, Britain's Akrotiri base in Cyprus had eight Tornado jets and 10 MQ-9 Reaper drones, two of which took part in a one-off mission to kill two British jihadists in Syria in September.

This force was bolstered on Thursday by an additional two Tornado jets and six newer-built Typhoon fighters, doubling its capacity.

Nevertheless, this does not make a large difference to the combined firepower of the anti-IS coalition, according to Justin Bronk, a research analyst in military sciences at RUSI...
AFP -france24.com
3/12/15
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