Syrské vojenské letectvo

the Syrian military air force

The syrian military air force as an organization within the structures of the Asadovského mode allows certain important positions. In short, it should be one of the main pillars of the regime. In peace time it was being built for homeland defense especially in front of the external enemy, which could theoretically be seen with regard to political and historical developments in Israel and the USA. However, the situation which has developed in the Syrian civil war quite fundamentally the equation whether the loss of the air force, in the manner of its deployment or also changes in the foreign diplomatic relations, especially with Turkey.

on the eve of The civil war

In an imaginary eve of the civil war was the state of the numbers and type in Syrian air force like this:

569 aircraft classic concept of the combat, reconnaissance and j. aircraft 467, sparring (practice fighting) 76 and the transport 26 (here should follow an increase in the war of aircraft, civilian carriers and the use of transport aircraft such as from Iran).
191 of the helicopters from combat/battle 71 and to transport, etc. purposes 120 (should be taken in account of their great use in combat missions).
The subsequent type of representation should be as follows (numbers may not correspond to reality):


Combat aircraft:

46 (56) MiG-29 (29B - 40 pcs, 29UB - 6 pcs and 29M/M2 10 pcs (nedodány to the beginning of the conflict).
38 aircraft, the MiG-25 (25PD - 30 pcs, 25RB - 8 pcs).
72 MiG-23 (23MS/MF/ML/MLD - 48 pcs, 23BN - 24 pcs and 23UM - 0 pcs (sic! what would constitute training ?).
65 (?) aircraft MiG-21 (21MF/bis - 35 pcs, 21R - 10 pcs and 21U/UM - 15 pcs).
15 aircraft of the Su-24MK2.
25 aircraft Su-22 version of the M2/M3/M4.

Trainer aircraft:

40 aircraft L-39ZO/ZA (in the category of training, but commonly they can be and are used as combat).
35 aircraft MBB 223 a-1 (light practice).
6 aircraft MFI-17 (light practice).

Transport aircraft:

1 aircraft An-24.
6 aircraft An-26.
4 aircraft Il-76M.
2 aircraft Dassault Falcon 20.
1 Dassault Falcon 900.
4, the Tu-134.
6 aircraft yak-40V.

Helicopters:

Combat/battle:

20 (?) helicopters Mi-24D.
10 (?) helicopters Mi-2.
15 (?) helicopter SA-342L/M.

Traffic:

43 (?) helicopter version of the Mi-8F, and-17H.

In the course of the civil war - deployment

With the gradually flared up originally, rather, a protest to rebel a manifestation of distrust in a regular civil war, have also occurred with regard to the increase in the intensity of the military operations of the air force against the rebels. You were and are formed by different groups, whether professional soldiers and soldiers of the PSOS, so differently here, less here more trained and armed the rebels, over time there are various foreign battle group, unfortunately, very islamist to the terrorist. The original threat to the air force was more sporadic, especially it was about the possibility of intervention predominantly of small arms, it is, however, covered aircraft, especially helicopters operating at low altitudes. Over time, however, there was a strengthening of the rebel units as the captured material as a material obtained abroad, also a portable anti-aircraft missiles. And due to this, the increase of losses of aircraft, especially for helicopters, is experiencing significant losses, here also has the effect of a high level of commitment, so aircraft are more olétány, leads to more frequent accidents, lack of ND is solved, inter alia, kanibalizací. The rebels then including besides the successes against flying targets also thrive to challenge the airport - this then pick off or even conquer, there are cases when they are destroyed aircraft on the ground or ukořistěnna (MiG-21, L-39, helicopters especially Mi8/17), for these, however, apparently has no pilots or are these aircraft neprovozuschopné. Compared to the army occurred so far probably just to the two dezercím. In one case, a helicopter Mi-8/17 with more senior officers on board and in one case, then fling the MiG-21 (the aircraft should be returned). Consumption does not manifest itself only on the lack of ND, but also, apparently, munitions, particularly bombs and missiles, when it is their lack (or the impossibility of effective use of the military common resources) addressed the use of so-called barelových bombs that are dumped from trucks to helicopters Mi-8/17. The use of the air force consisted at first on the helicopters, but in rising operating and neoperačních losses, and probably also with regard to the scope of the objectives (regular and irregular), there has been a deployment of combat jet aircraft, especially the versions of the MiG-21 and 23, Su-22 and 24 and L-39, use of aircraft, the MiG-29 is rather difficult to imagine and as for the MiG-25, here perhaps you can just consider the deployment of 8 aircraft version of RB for the needs of the survey. Also rather not be counted with the deployment of training/combat aircraft such as the MiG-21U/UM, though it cannot be ruled out either. However, in the case of foreign intervention, which, however, is increasingly less likely, it is a no-brainer to deploy even more fighters of the ingredients. Not forgetting even the transport air force, it does not play a role in direct combat, but certainly it is widely used for various transports material or people, whether in the outback and overseas, while can be counted even with the deployment of the originally purely civilian transport aircraft. Necessary to then set off the use of aircraft transporting cargo as well as "volunteers" from Iran.
The loss of the air force are complicated, since in itself the syrian air force losses denies or exaggerates, and most of the allocated losses gives the debit of technical defects. It is undeniable that the syrian rebels, whether they're fighting for anyone, including islamist and terrorist groups, have achieved some success, among the most frequent victims of rebel "air defense", are helicopters "Miles" and the aircraft "MiG", unfortunately, mostly unspecified, without documentation (video, photo). However, certain success are documented (from the wrecks then you can discern e.g., the L-39, MiG-21 or Mi-8/17). However, I must say that the claimed successes are certainly inflated, and apparently not always even captured aircraft in the "problems" may not necessarily be the aircraft lost. Also not all the achievements captured in photographs and videos of the rebels must be their "achievements". In addition, one helicopter of the syrian air force was shot down by Turkish F-16, which could be understood as retaliation for the downing of their RF-4 Phantom by syrian protileteckými means.
The deployment of the air force, however, it is also so very intense, albeit not always are the goals of the "respektovatelné", ergo, the war is unfortunately necessary to deal with the civilian victims, but you are apparently in some (and as it seems not rare) cases targeted. If there will be no replacement of losses, can occur in the long term for these operational operating crews, and aircraft to critical losses, which would lead to a significant weakening of the influence of the syrian air force in the civil war, however, cannot anticipate the development of the situation whether in the amenities of the rebels, saves of the other party, or the possibility of compensation of losses, the supply of ND and ammunition from abroad.
As for the possibility of the operability of the syrian air force against any military foreign intervention, is against a ground-based deployment (e.g. the Turkish army) weakened, but still probably not critically. And as for deployment against possible air force opponent I'm not aware of losses in the downright, rather, fighter units (MiG-29 and 25), however, must be reckoned with disruption of the early warning system (because some points are under the control of rebels), a limited operabilitou (some airports are in the hands of the rebels) and in the future from possible especially non-airline losses, caused by enemy activity on the ground. On the other hand, while ammunition depots and ND operationally used types will probably slowly (or quickly) but surely emptying. Stocks in these fighter units are apparently undisturbed, and nevyčerpávány beyond a routine operation, but the question is the intensity and quality of training, which could have (but didn't) suffer the war (e.g., the preferred flight hours (petrol, etc.) for fighting departments, etc.).

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Air_Force.
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Syrske-vojenske-letectvo-t168404#504969 Version : 0
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