A flotilla of Russian warships in the Mediterranean is providing a high-profile show of force in support of the Syrian regime. But the deployment has also thrown into sharp relief the limits of Moscow’s conventional military.

State television broadcasts to the domestic audience Top Gun-style footage of bombers taking off from Russia’s flagship aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov. Foreign observers get to see one of the country’s most important weapons exports, the MiG-29 fighter plane, in action.

But the quarter-century-old Kuznetsov lacks the kind of powerful catapult system that is featured on U.S. carriers, forcing Russian planes to carry lighter payloads and less fuel, according to North Atlantic Treaty Organization officials.

And a dearth of highly trained aviators able to take off and land at sea has forced the ship to carry fewer pilots, according to Western officials. Moscow already lost one jet fighter when it crashed this month during a training flight on an approach to the carrier.

“The Russian navy has not had a lot of operational experience in recent years in actual combat,” said Eric Wertheim, author of The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World.