Syrian Arab Army (SAA)

As the regulars here know, my thing is ORBATs or Order of Battle for those that don't know. Is there any interest in seeing what I have accumulated so far on the present Syrian Army fighting units?

Damascus and his chariots

After five and a half years after the start of the Civil War, and one year after the entry into fighting Russian aviation Syrian Arab Army (SAA - the official name of the Syrian Armed Forces) is a very heterogeneous forces.

Land forces consist of three army corps, three separate divisions of the Republican Guard and the MTR.

1st AK includes 5th Mechanized division (it includes 15, 112, 132-th mechanized, 12th Armoured Brigade, 175th Artillery Regiment), 7th Mechanized (68, 88, 121 th mechanized, 78 th Armoured Brigade artillery regiment) and the 9th armored division (33, 34, 43th armored, 52 mechanized brigades, an artillery regiment), 61st and the 90th infantry Brigade.

2nd AK - 1st Armored division (76, 91, 153 armored, 58 mechanized brigades, an artillery regiment) and 10th Mechanized division (18, 62, 85th mechanized, 56th Armoured Brigade).

3rd AK includes 3rd division (47, 65, 81st armored, 21th Mechanized Brigade) and 11th division (60, 67th armored, 87th mechanized brigade).

Separate divisions - 4th Armored (40, 41, 42th armored, 138th Mechanized Brigade, 154th artillery, 555th MTR regiment), 18 Armored (131, 134, 167 Armoured, 120th mechanized Brigade, 64th artillery regiment), 17th Reserve mechanized (137th mechanized, 93 Armoured Brigade, artillery regiment).

Republican Guard includes the 105, 106th Mechanized, 103rd Commando, 124th Brigade Special Forces, 101, 102nd Infantry, 104th Airborne, 100th Artillery, regiment of marines.

MTR -14 th (36, 554, 556th Regiment MTR) and 15th (35, 127, MTR 404-armored regiments) division, the division "Tigers" (Brigade "Cheetahs" and "Panther") , the team "desert Hawks", 41, 45, 46, 47, 53, 54 MTR regiments.

Republican Guard, MTR and the 4th Armored Division are the most capable and loyal to the regime of the compounds on them bear the brunt of the civil war. A significant part of the remaining compounds destroyed in the fighting, and exists only on paper. All three army corps, or rather what was left of them, are involved in the protection of rear areas, which in the conditions of the Syrian "quilt" is not much easier than keeping the fighting on multiple fronts.

On arms consist of 12 PU on modern TP "Point", from 18 to 30 PU old TP "Moon", from 24 to 48 PU OTP-P 17, and their North Korean counterparts "Hwaseong".

Tank fleet of T-54/55 (635), T-62 (496), T-72 (1145) to T-90 (15) and possibly up to 80 old PT-76.

There are up to 700 BRDM-2, more than 1,700 infantry fighting vehicles (up to 1546 BMP-1, 98 BMP-2), to the 1400 BTR (300 BTR-152, and 500 BTR-50, 600 BTR-60PB, not less than 10 APCs -80 and BTR-82A).

Artillery comprises about 300 self-propelled guns (up to 280 2S1, 36 howitzers D-30 on the chassis of the T-34/85, not less than 3 guns M-46 trucks, to 53 2C3) 1,200 towed guns (up to 150 M-30, to 100 A-19 230 D-30 600 M-46 20 A-20 50 ML-20 20 D-1 10 P-23) of about 1,100 mortar (up to 200 PM-37 to 210 2B11, 700 PM-43, 25, M-160, 8 M-240), more than 400 MLRS (up to 110 Chinese towed Tour 63, and 300 Soviet BM-21, 35 "Hurricane", a few units "Tornado" and flamethrower 1A-TOC).

There is a significant amount of ATGW (up to 200 French "Milan", 410 Soviet "Baby" (including up to 199 self-propelled on the BRDM-2), 150 "Fagot", 40 "Competition", to 1000 contemporary Russian "Cornet") and to PHE 300 BS-3.

Most of the army air defense assets transferred to the air defense troops. On suhoputchikov arsenal remains until 5000 MANPADS (up to 4000 "Strela-2", 100 "Strela-3" to 500 "Igla", 200 "Igla-S"), more than 300 ZSU (up to 344 "Shilka", up to 25 ZSU -57-2), about 1400 anti-aircraft guns (up to 500 ZU-23-2, 300 61-K and Chinese Tour 65 to 600 C-60, up to 25 KC-19).

It must be emphasized that all of these figures represent the maximum possible values ​​for each of the types of equipment, the actual number of combat-ready armed SAA samples can be much (by tens and even hundreds of units) is less. In addition to huge losses in the case of severe physical wear and tear during the fighting, as much of the AME carried out in the 70s or even 60s. APCs in battle almost never used, they are replaced by "carts", ie commercial vehicles (trucks and SUVs) with mounted weapons (ATGM, PU Nursi, memory, recoilless rifles, machine guns, and so on. D.). In fact, war tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and "carts", and this applies to the SAA itself, and to its numerous enemies.

The Air Force also suffered heavy losses, the remaining equipment is worn strongly out, so it is the real number may be considerably less than indicated below.
- Shock aviation includes about 50 bombers (up to 16 Su-24M, up to 32 MiG-23BN), and up to 72 attack aircraft (up to 42 Su-22, and 30 lung Czechoslovak L-39Z).
-Fighter aircraft from 35 to 46 MiG-29 (including 6 MiG-29UB), up to 82 MiG-23 (up to 77 MS / MF / MLD, to 5 UM), up to 96 MiG-21 (up to 87 MF and bis, 10 UM and CM), and 40 interceptor MiG-25 (including 8 reconnaissance MiG-25RB, 2 combat-capable MiG-25UB).
-Transport planes - 3, IL-76, AN-24, 1, 5 An-26, Yak-40 4-6, 4 Tu-134, US 2 RA-31, 2 "Falcon-20", 1 "Falcon-900." Training - 6 Pakistan "Mushak" to 32 Italian MV-223.
-In service is available up to 90 combat helicopters (up to 44 Soviet Mi-24 and Mi-25, and 46 French SA342L), and up to 73 multi-purpose vehicles (34-53 Mi-8 and Mi-17, Mi-20 2).

Of all the aviation equipment relatively new can only be regarded as the MiG-29, and with a very big stretch of the Su-24M. Despite the deterioration of the fleet and heavy losses, it is the CAA Air Force helped to hold more than four years and wait for Russian assistance in the first place, providing support to the ground forces, and secondly, providing numerous isolated garrisons besieged.

Air defense troops in Syria, as it was in the Soviet Union - a single type of aircraft. They include 10 divisions (33-36 teams). In service is up to 53 battalions of S-75 (up to 318 PU), 40 battalions of S-125 (160 Pu), 8 battalions of S-200 (48 CP), 5 regiments of "Square" (up to 25 batteries to 100 PU), 3-6 divisions "Buk-M1" and "Buk-M2" (PU 18-36, 9-18 ROM), 61 SAM "Wasp", and 100 SAM "Strela-1" to 60 SAM " Strela-10 ", 36 ZRPK" Carapace-C1 ". From all this modern technology are SAM "Buk" (especially "Buk-M2") and ZRPK "Carapace-C1".

Navy suffered no losses during the civil war, but the technique is outdated, completely worn out, her fighting ability is questionable.
- There are 2 very old Soviet patrol boats 159A of the project and up to 13 as the age of the project 205 missile boats (including 5 205U project to project 5 205ER). Relatively modern Iranian are lightweight missile boats "Tyr-2 '(RCC" Nur ", an analogue of the Chinese C-802), of which 6 to 10 units.
- The composition of the Navy also has 14 patrol boats (8 1400M Soviet project, 6 Iranian type MIG-S-1800), 5 Soviet trawlers (1 project in 1265, 4 projects in 1258) and 3 770 KFOR project (Polish built).
- Naval aviation includes old Soviet helicopters - 10 Mi-14PL, 2-4 Ka-28 and possibly up to 5 Ka-25.
- It has a significant potential for the Syrian coastal defense. It consists of two divisions of the newest Russian SCRC "Bastion", 6 divisions of Soviet SCRC P-5, 6 divisions SCRC U-15 Division 1 Iranian SCRC "Nur" 36 Soviet coastal guns CM 4-1.

In addition to the SAA itself on the side of the Government of Syria fighting groups, the position of which is due to confessional and political circumstances. Syrian President Bashar Assad and much of the leadership of Syria belong to the Alawite religious movement to which belong to the 15 percent of the population. Therefore, on the side of government forces battle militia Alawites and other ethnic and religious minorities - Christians and Druze. They are united in the National Defence Force. In addition, on the side of the government are fighting some left (Marxist) groups combined in the Syrian resistance, as well as some secular pan-Arab group, united in the Arab National Guard (not to be confused with the Republican Guard - the elite units of the Armed Forces of the country). All of these forces (except Alawites themselves) support Assad is not so much out of love for him, but because of the absolute unacceptability of all his opponents.

The main external ally of Damascus since the beginning of the Civil War - Tehran. On the Syrian side of the Armed Forces in the war involved units of the Revolutionary Guards, Special Forces Revolutionary Guard "Quds" and militia "Basij" (also included in the structure of the IRGC). Due to Iran's efforts to fight on the side of Damascus, Shiite volunteers Lebanon (grouping "Hezbollah"), Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. In addition, the military allies of the government forces perform some Palestinian factions. The indirect, but very important for the supporters of the Damascus steel Yemeni rebels housity (local Shiites). The war against them, begun Arabian monarchies in March 2015, was for Riyadh and its allies extremely unfortunate and distracting very significant resources that would not be war in Yemen, go to support the Syrian opposition.

Since September 2015 the most important military ally of the SAA is the Russian Armed Forces. In addition to actually participate in the hostilities it comes to the supply of arms and ammunition. However, heavy equipment is transferred to a small extent, is dominated by small arms and ammunition.

In general, without internal and external allies SAA it would long ago have lost the war, however on Middle Eastern standards, its fighting capacity is very high, and front-line experience simply unique.

All SAA opponents are fighting against it mainly by her former weapons. Accordingly, a very significant loss of these opponents (the Islamists and the so-called moderate opposition, mostly also consisting of Islamists) in essentially the technique of simultaneously becoming and final loss of the Syrian army. Such is the sad logic of civil war.
Author: Alexander Khramchikhin

These are the most successful units for the Syrians and are almost always leading the Government forces and so in no particular order;

- 42nd brigade (presently leading the Western Ghouta front)
- 67th brigade (presently leading the Palmyra front)
- 137th brigade (heavily involved in the defense of Deirez Zor)
- 555th regiment (heavily involved in Aleppo and Hama, presently involved in the Northern Hama front)
- 800th regiment (heavily involved along the Lebanese border now leading the Western Aleppo front)
- Marine regiment (have developed from a battalion to brigade size force under close Russian supervision, now leading the Latakia front)
- 102nd Republican Guard brigade (was fighting in Damascus suburbs but now leading the Northern Aleppo front)
- 103rd Republican Guard brigade (was leading the Latakia front but has disappeared from sight. Not sure if being rebuilt or merged into the Marines)
- 104th Republican Guard brigade (airborne force moved into Deirez Zor to lead the defense)
- 105th Republican Guard brigade (presently leading the Eastern Ghouta front)
- Tiger division (fire brigade for the Syrian Army, the go-to unit. Actually divides into 3 subunits; Falcon, Panther and Cheetah)
- Desert Hawks brigade (private militia of Syria's wealthiest man. Supported by the Russians and used as another fire brigade)