At a common ceremony in Damascus, the Russian military representative announced that an undisclosed number of „Grinch 420“ units capable of taking down both bomber and spy planes from all altitudes anywhere over Syrian territory including rebel areas have been dispatched across the country to become permanently operational with the new year. At the same time, President Assad´s office released a statement that Syria will be formally closing its airspace to all foreign militaries acting outside of its cooperation guidelines in a few days.

The „Grinch 420“ is a so-called intelligent weapon especially developed to secure airspace bigger than its own range of ground operation. With its functionality distributed over a modular architecture of monitoring, coordination and firing trailers, it can take down enemy aircraft even above territory inaccessible to its ground operators. Unlike conventional systems such as Patriot or Irondome, which basically try to throw an arrow directly at the target, the Grinch interceptor pack ascends to a high altitude, looks around from there, and then according to its commands cracks down on any bombing or spying plane tagged within a cone of operation whose size is designed to exceed fuelling ranges.

With that technique, the 420´s, which analysts describe as the Kremlin’s crown jewels, can neutralise a pack of enemy aircraft even after they left its range of ground operation. For this purpose, the system was developed with a software interface capable to take in any air traffic radar feed buzzing around in the area as if it was its own. Operators then can chose precisely where they want the debris to come down with an accuracy of a few hundred meters, allowing them to send unique signals of resolve to enemy commanders. Weapons experts suggest the “Grinch 420” was developed as an ambitious response to “missile shield” provocations, ensuring mutually assured obstruction.

Assad´s office said it had delivered Letters of Noninterference to all United Nations member states involving themselves into efforts revolving around Syria as to allow them to retreat their fleets before the no fly zone is enacted. “With this measure, we give the diplomatic term No Fly Zone back its legal meaning: An area, where the defenders impose an aerial curfew upon the intruders and not the other way round,” the statement said. The Damascus Human Rights Observatory commented the Grinch 420´s were the public face of the Kremlin´s fresh policy to persuade Assad to abandon the technically much less sophisticated barrel bombs.