The longer the confusion in Syria lasts, the more often the news about its armed forces appears on a wide screen. In just a few years, the country has gone from minor skirmishes with detachments of "opposition" to the bloody chaos of the civil war. Oddly enough, until recently, the Syrian Air Force did not attract any attention to itself, although their role in keeping the militant fanatics and the "dollar Islamists" is very large.
A bit of history
Since the Ba'ath party came to power in the country, which happened in 1963, military aviation has played an important role in the life of this state. It was the Air Force officers under the command of Hafez al-Assad, who is the father of Bashar al-Assad, the current president of the country, who staged that armed coup. It is not surprising that it was the “flyers” who played and are playing prominent roles in both military and purely peaceful life. Although in the last three years they have not been able to prove themselves in the last field.
Why did Syria have such a powerful air force?
There are many explanations for this. Firstly, the Syrians are traditionally at odds with neighboring Israel. Secondly, for a number of reasons, they were forced to intervene in the Lebanese conflict. Thirdly, at one time they had very serious contradictions with the government of Saddam Hussein.
The 80s were especially successful for the Syrian Air Force: when the “native” pilots with high qualifications finally appeared in the country, and not their colleagues from the USSR, the Syrians were able to intervene more actively in chronic conflicts on the Israeli border, without fear of political consequences. Moreover, in practice, they were convinced that Israeli planes were not an all-devastating rampart, but merely targets. This could somewhat whitewash the Syrians in the eyes of the Kremlin leadership.
After the infamous Doomsday War for Syria, when almost all expensive Soviet equipment was destroyed by the Israelis at the airfields, and the pilots did not even attempt to fly into the air, Moscow was very skeptical about the idea of restoring the Syrian air force as a class.
Where are the shots from?
From a small core, which was prepared by the British military experts in 1948, a cohort of talented specialists grew up. In 1980, the Air Force included 650 aircraft and helicopters, at least one hundred thousand military personnel and about 40 thousand reservists. At that time, the main task of the country's leadership was the radical modernization of its Air Force, for which, in 1986, the government placed an order to supply a certain amount of MiG-29 from the USSR. It was also planned that the Syrian Air Force will undergo a radical reformation, after which their structure and training will become similar to the Soviet one.
But in the 90s, for obvious reasons, the supplies were practically curtailed, and soon the Syrian "flyers" practically did not participate in any military operation. Of course, the war was always waged with Israel, not stopping for a single day, but due to the weakening of the opponents of the Jews in that region and the growing power of their army due to the constant supply of equipment from the United States, Syria was in a stalemate. At that time, there were no more than 60 thousand personnel pilots, there were even fewer reservists, the Syrian air force in general was reduced to 555 units. Relatively many, but … Many of the aircraft existed only on paper and could not even theoretically fly into the air.
Current state of affairs
Again, on paper, everything looks quite rosy, since the Syrian air force can be compared in number with its counterparts from Egypt or Israel. But in fact, everything is bad. The main problem is the catastrophic obsolescence of the entire combat aircraft fleet. Its structure includes no more than 60 MiG-29 aircraft, about three dozen MiG-25s and two dozen Su-24s. Everything else is very old MiGs, which, due to the complete absence of sane MOT, often can’t even fly up. Of course, with such forces it is foolish to think about countering the Israeli Air Force.
For example, Jews in recent years have begun to effectively use their own UAVs, and their aircraft missiles are very good. For the Syrians, all this is not even in its infancy, but simply absent as a class. Even reconnaissance squadrons are not really equipped with more or less modern technology. And there is nothing to cover them with: almost all MiG-21s, which at least somehow could counteract Israeli F-16s, were destroyed long before the known events, being ground in constant border skirmishes.
It is also reported that a significant part of the remaining MiG-23 in Syria was destroyed by the so-called "opposition". However, it is highly likely that they blew up and burnt already worthless scrap metal that had not flown since the late 90s. In general, the state of the Syrian Air Force today is very difficult.
Hard times
As in many countries of the Middle East, the country's air force has undergone a significant reduction, and the cost of their maintenance has decreased significantly. To maintain the entire army, even in a relatively prosperous 2009, no more than 3% of the GDP was allocated, and this was subject to an ongoing war at the borders. The situation was further aggravated by the skillful "support" of the United States, which in every possible way curtailed currency tranches and investments in the country's economy, introducing new restrictions against it.
Officially, it was reported that the Syrians allegedly support the "terrorists" from Iraq. At the same time, they called terrorists the fighters of the Iraqi government, which at that moment the Americans themselves exterminated. The culmination was Operation Orchard, during which Israeli F-15 and F-16 aircraft completely destroyed the reactor under construction at the alleged Syrian nuclear power plant. There is curious information about the targeted cyberattack to which all the country's military networks were subjected at that moment. Because of this organized resistance, it did not work out.
Thus, the Syrian Air Force and Air Defense are currently in such a deplorable state that it is difficult to talk about their real existence. Purely hypothetically, the country has airplanes, but their real combat effectiveness causes deepest doubts.
Air defense
Particularly alarming is the deplorable state of the radio intelligence system. Unlike Israel, which has many AWACS aircraft in service, the Syrians are forced to be content only with ground-based radar systems. This technique is reliable, but very outdated. It is for this reason that the planes of the same Israelis or Turks very often violate the state border of the country. Syria has virtually no interceptors left, so there is simply nothing to counteract this behavior of neighbors.
In addition, the situation with air defense systems does not cause delight. Once, a considerable number of machines that were quite modern for those times were delivered to the Syrians, but due to the terrifying conditions of their maintenance and storage, when the most basic norms were not respected, most were already lost. The remaining equipment is already very old and imperfect, it cannot guarantee the detection of enemy aircraft in all situations, and the calculations assigned to the machines do not always have a high level of training. This is largely due to the fact that many military personnel have already died in several years of continuous war.
Russian support
Ever since the Cold War, when the USSR was the main supplier of weapons to Syria, a similar situation remains with regard to Russia. At present, the Russian Air Force is also conducting operations in Syria, and there is also information about contracts with the Syrian side, which include, in particular, the supply of Mi-25 combat helicopters (this is an export version of the Mi-24).
Back in the early 2000s, information slipped on the start of MiG-31E shipments. It was assumed that these aircraft will become a replacement for the obsolete MiG-25. On the pages of the media slipped messages about the order of eight cars, the supply of which, allegedly, was slowed down due to financial difficulties on the Syrian side. But in 2010, it was officially announced that no contracts were actually concluded.
The supply of the MiG-29 is currently in a "suspended" state. In addition, it is assumed that domestic gunsmiths intend to sell at least 36 Yak-130 combat training aircraft to Syria. As of the end of 2012, a contract was officially announced. So far, we can say that this technology is not yet in the country.
Loyalty of Russia
For obvious reasons, all these agreements cause a pronounced negative reaction of the United States and its satellites. But Russia, most likely, will fulfill all its agreements. Many domestic economists at one time said that the Syrian’s low solvency may become an obstacle to supplies, since Moscow is not going to repeat the mistakes of the USSR by supplying expensive equipment for free, but this is not just about money.
Back in 1971, an agreement was concluded between our countries, under the terms of which Russia has the right to be located at a base located in Tartus. In many respects, this determines the success of the Russian Air Force in Syria, as our group has good rear areas and does not experience supply problems.
The war with the "opposition"
There are no reliable data on the supply of aircraft and helicopters to Syria. In many ways, foreign “partners” also contribute to this: for example, the ship carrying the repaired Mi-25 was generally forced to stay in the port, since the insurance of the vessel under British jurisdiction was withdrawn by the UK. Only thanks to the escort of Russian combat ships, in the environment of which he left the port of Kaliningrad, did the Syrians manage to deliver 30 or 45 helicopters.
As already mentioned at the very beginning of the article, the Syrian Air Force performed well in the fight against ISIS. In the early years of the war, the very Mi-25 was especially respected. As part of its weapons there are large-caliber machine guns, missiles, there is the possibility of mounting a wide range of bombs. In addition, the Su-25 attack aircraft was also in demand, some of which the Syrians still survived. Unfortunately, due to the low training of many pilots and the large number of MANPADS, almost all of this equipment was lost.
Direct support to Russia
If it were not for the Russian Air Force in Syria, the Assad government would have been very tight. It is noteworthy that the first reports in foreign media regarding the presence of our aircraft in the territory of this state appeared long before the first official confirmations. This is largely due to the wide distribution of video hosting services: a year and a half ago, when our equipment was not in Syria, a video went around the expanses of the network in which several Su-34s and an IL-86 transporter fly over Syrian territory.
Given that the paint scheme of the Syrian Air Force is extremely similar to the Russian one (in fact, we use the same desert camouflage), we can nevertheless assume that these fighters delivered to the Syrians cover the Russian transport carrier carrying supplies. But soon the Government of the Russian Federation nevertheless made an official statement. It stated that the Russian Air Force is indeed present in Syria.
By the way, how are Syrian military aircraft painted at all? Unlike our Air Force, which uses several camouflage variants at once, which depend on the immediate conditions of use, the technique of this state is painted much more “more modest”. Possible yellow-green color or marsh, greenish version.
The usual sand color with the Syrian Air Force identification marks prevails. Photos of these aircraft, if they do not have any special marks, are very easy to confuse with similar machines of other states in this region, which at one time received weapons from the USSR.
How many of our aircraft are there?
At first, at least some reliable data on the composition of our group in this region was not provided, but today there is such information. So, in the Syrian sky today fly:
- Su-27SM - 4 units.
- Su-30SM - 16 units.
- Su-34 - 12 units.
- Su-24M - it is assumed that there are a little more than 30 of these aircraft.
- Finally, the Su-25SM attack aircraft there are 12 copies.
