Syrian Air Force: photo, composition, condition, color scheme. Russian Air Force in Syria

The longer the confusion in Syria lasts, the more often news about its armed forces appear on a wide screen. In just a few years the country has gone from insignificant skirmishes with detachments of "oppositionists" to the bloody chaos of the civil war. Ironically, until recently, the Syrian Air Force did not attract attention to itself, although their role in keeping the militant fanatics and "dollar Islamists" is very high.

A bit of history

Since the Baath Party came to power in the country, what happened in 1963, military aviation played a significant role in the life of this state. It was the air force officers under the command of Hafez Assad, the father of Bashar Assad, the current president of the country, who organized the armed coup. Not surprisingly, it was the "flyers" that played and played significant roles in both military and purely peaceful life. Although in the last three years they can not 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, they at one time had very difficult contradictions with the government of Saddam Hussein.

Particularly successful for the Syrian air force were the 80s: when in the country there appeared "native" pilots with high qualifications, and not their colleagues from the USSR, the Syrians were able to more actively intervene in the chronic conflicts on the Israeli border, without fear of political consequences. Moreover, they in practice became convinced that Israeli planes are not an all-destructive shaft, but merely targets. This could somewhat whitewash the Syrians in the eyes of the leadership of the Kremlin.

After the "Yom Kippur War" shameful for Syria, when practically all of the expensive Soviet equipment was destroyed by the Israelis at the airfields, and the pilots did not even try to get up in the air, Moscow was very skeptical about the idea of rebuilding the Syrian Air Force as a class.

Whence shots?

From a small nucleus, which was prepared by British military experts in 1948, a cohort of talented specialists has grown up. In the Air Force for 1980, there were 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 radical modernization of its Air Force, for which in 1986 the government made an order for the supply of some MiG-29 from the USSR. It was also planned that the airborne troops of 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 1990s, for obvious reasons, the deliveries were virtually rolled-off, and soon the Syrian "flyers" were practically not involved in any combat operation. Of course, the war was always waged with Israel, without stopping for a single day, but because of the weakening of the opponents of the Jews in that region and the growth of the power of their army due to the constant supply of equipment from the US, Syria was in a stalemate. At that time, the number of personnel pilots was not more than 60 thousand, reservists became even smaller, the composition of the Syrian air force dropped to 555 units altogether. Relatively many, but ... Many of the aircraft existed only on paper and could not rise to the air even theoretically.

Current state of affairs

Again, on paper, everything looks quite bright, since the Syrian Air Force can be compared in size with its counterparts from Egypt or Israel. But in fact, everything is bad. The main problem is the catastrophic obsolescence of the entire fleet of combat aircraft. It consists of not more than 60 MiG-29 aircraft, about three dozen MiG-25 and two dozen Su-24. All the rest are very old MiGs, which, due to the complete absence of the SOM, can often not even take off. Of course, it's foolish to think about such opposition to the Israeli Air Force.

For example, in recent years, Jews have effectively used UAVs of their own design, and their air rockets are very good. In the Syrians, all this is not even in its infancy, but simply absent as a class. Even reconnaissance squadrons are not properly equipped with more or less modern technology. And there is nothing to cover for them: practically all MiG-21s, who somehow could counteract the Israeli F-16s, were destroyed long before the well-known events, being ground in constant cross-border skirmishes.

It is also reported that a significant part of the MiG-23s remaining in Syria was destroyed by the so-called "oppositionists". However, there is a high probability that they have blown up and burned already unsuitable scrap metal, which has not flown since the late 90s. In general, the state of the Syrian air force is very difficult for today.

Hard times

As in many countries of the Middle East, the country's air power has been significantly reduced, and the costs of their maintenance have decreased at times. Not even more than 3% of GDP was allocated for the maintenance of the entire army, even in the comparatively prosperous year of 2009, and this is under conditions of an ongoing war on the borders. The situation was further aggravated by the skillful "support" of the United States, which in every possible way cut currency tranches and investments in the country's economy, imposing new restrictions against it.

Officially, it was reported that the Syrians allegedly support the "terrorists" from Iraq. Terrorists at the same time called the fighters of the government Iraqi army, which at that time the Americans themselves exterminated. The culmination was Operation Fruit Garden, during which the F-15 and F-16 planes of Israel completely destroyed the reactor under construction of the proposed Syrian nuclear power plant. There are interesting information about the directed cyber attack, which all military networks of the country were subjected to at that moment. Because of this organized resistance did not work.

Thus, the air force and air defense of Syria are currently in such a deplorable state that it is difficult to talk about their actual existence. Purely hypothetically, there are planes in the country, but their real combat capability raises deep doubts.

Air defense

Particularly alarming is the deplorable state of the radio reconnaissance system. Unlike Israel, which has many DRLOiU aircraft on board, Syrians are forced to settle for only terrestrial 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 practically no interceptors, so there is simply nothing to counteract this behavior of its neighbors.

In addition, the situation with the SAM does not evoke delight. Once upon a time, a considerable number of quite modern cars were delivered to the Syrians, but because of the terrible conditions of their maintenance and storage, when the most elementary norms were not observed, most of it was already lost. The remaining equipment is already very old and imperfect, it can not guarantee the detection of enemy aircraft in all situations, and calculations based on 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 main supplier of arms to Syria was the USSR, the same situation remains with Russia. Currently, there are also Russian air forces in Syria, as well as information on contracts with the Syrian side, which include, inter alia, the supply of Mi-25 combat helicopters (this is an export version of the Mi-24).

As early as the beginning of the 2000s, information about the origin of MiG-31E supplies slipped. It was assumed that these aircraft will replace the obsolete MiG-25. On the pages of the media, reports were leaping about the order of eight cars, the delivery of which, allegedly, was hampered due to financial difficulties on the part of 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 expected that domestic gunsmiths intend to sell at least 36 Yak-130 combat training planes to Syria. As of the end of 2012, a contract was officially announced. For the time being, we can say that this technology is not yet available in the country.

Loyalty of Russia

For understandable reasons, all these treaties cause a pronounced negative reaction from the US and its satellites. But Russia, most likely, will fulfill all its agreements. Many domestic economists at one time said that the obstacle to supply could be only the low solvency of the Syrians, as Moscow is not going to repeat the mistakes of the USSR, supplying expensive equipment free of charge, but this is not just about money.

As far back as 1971, an agreement was concluded between our countries, under the terms of which Russia has the right to settle on the base located in Tartus. In many respects this is stipulated by the successes of the Russian Air Force in Syria, since our group has good rear services and does not experience any supply problems.

The war with the "opposition"

While there is no reliable data on the supply of aircraft and helicopters to Syria. In many respects this is facilitated by foreign "partners": for example, the ship that transported the repaired Mi-25 was generally forced to remain in the port, as the insurance of the vessel under British jurisdiction was withdrawn by the United Kingdom. Only thanks to the escort of Russian combat ships, surrounded by which he left the port of Kaliningrad, was able to deliver 30 or 45 helicopters to the Syrians.

As it was already said at the very beginning of the article, the Syrian Air Force showed itself well in the fight against IGIL. In the first years of the war, the Mi-25 was especially respected. As part of its weapons there are large-caliber machine guns, missiles, there is the possibility of hanging a wide range of bombs. In addition, the Su-25 attack aircraft was also in demand, some of which the Syrians still preserved. Unfortunately, due to the low training of many pilots and a large number of MANPADS, almost all this technology was lost.

Direct support to Russia

If it were not for the Russian air force in Syria, the government of Assad would be quite tight. It is noteworthy that the first reports in foreign media concerning the presence of our aviation in the territory of this state appeared long before the first official confirmation. This is largely due to the widespread use of video sharing services: another year and a half ago, when our equipment was not in Syria, a roller was walking along the expanses of the network, in which several Su-34 and the IL-86 transported over Syrian territory.

Considering that the Syrian airspace color scheme is very similar to the Russian one (in fact, we use the same desert camouflage), we can still assume that the fighter delivered to the Syrians is covered by a Russian transport carrier carrying supplies. But soon the Government of the Russian Federation made an official statement. It said that the Russian Air Force in Syria is indeed present.

By the way, how is Syrian military aircraft painted? Unlike our Air Force, which uses several camouflage variants that depend on the immediate conditions of use, the technique of this state is much more "modest". Possible yellow-green coloration or marshy, greenish variant.

The usual sand coloring with the Syrian Air Force identification marks prevails. Photo of these aircraft, if they do not have any special marks, it is very easy to be confused with similar machines of other states in this region, which at one time received weapons from the USSR.

How many of our planes are there?

At first there was not any reliable information about the composition of our group in this region at first, but today such information is available. 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 these aircraft there are just over 30 pieces.
• Finally, the Su-25SM attack aircraft there are 12 copies.

Departures from the territory of Russia

In addition to planes, 15 Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters were sent to help the Syrians. Finally, relatively recently, Russian air forces based in Mozdok and Makhachkala began to fly to Syria. Among the "guest performers", which represent the Russian Air Force in Syria, there is the following technique:

• Legendary "White swans", they are also Tu-160 - 6 units.
• No less well-known "Bears", they are also Tu-95 - 5 units.
• Tu22M3 - departures make from 12 to 14 aircraft.
• Su-34 - 8 pieces.
• Su-27SM - 4 more units.

Thus, the composition of our group is quite numerous, but very heterogeneous. This is largely due to the traditional narrowly specialized nature of domestic combat aircraft, which are clearly divided into attack planes, fighters, interceptors and bombers. Considering that only "drying" is flying in Syria, there are no special problems with their supply, since this technique is maximally unified. The same is true for Mi helicopters. This is the Russian Air Force in Syria.