Here’s What to Remember: While the Raptor’s superior performance can make up for a lot of the deficit, close-in, the lack of a high off-boresight missile is a serious deficiency—which the U.S. Air Force hopes to address in the coming years.

Russia has deployed at least four advanced Sukhoi Su-30SM Flankers to its base near Latakia, Syria. The jets are the latest in a series of Russian deployments to the war-torn Arab nation that includes tanks, armored personnel carriers, heavy artillery and a sizable infantry contingent.

(This first appeared in 2014.) 

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While Russian Forces in the region are probably there to support Bashar al-Assad’s beleaguered regime against ISIS, without careful coordination with U.S. and allied forces operating in the region, there is a real danger of an inadvertent confrontation. That is why U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter made sure to call his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoygu to make certain that U.S. and Russian forces don’t accidentally find themselves in conflict.

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“The secretary and the minister talked about areas where the United States and Russia’s perspectives overlap and areas of divergence,” states a Pentagon release. The timing of the call was slightly awkward because the Flankers showed up in Syria just hours after the conversation.

For Russia, selecting the Su-30SM for the Syrian operation is a logical choice. The aircraft can carry a hefty payload and it has excellent range. Moreover, it offers the flexibility to carry out air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. That means it doesn’t need a separate fighter escort. Further, the aircraft has a second crewmember, which is helpful for complex missions.

That’s why the U.S. Air Force’s F-15E Strike Eagle and the U.S. Navy’s F/A-18F Super Hornet, which are in many respects the Su-30SM’s direct analogues, have two aviators onboard.