Russia’s move Wednesday to hit Syrian targets from more than 1,000 miles away using ship-based, long-range cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea was a dramatic display of military power designed to taunt the U.S., experts say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This was specifically done to show bravado …\u00a0it’s chest thumping,” said Christopher Harmer, a retired Navy officer and senior naval analyst at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Russians announced 26 missile strikes on Syrian rebels using a first-of-its-kind act of power projection, firing ship-based supersonic “Klub” missiles, roughly similar to American-made Tomahawk missiles and sometimes referred to as “carrier killers.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Russians easily could have hit the same targets with the dozens of warplanes forward-deployed at their Latakia air base in Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n