Syrian Armed Forces

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Syrian National Army.

Syrian Arab Armed Forces
الْقُوَّاتُ الْمُسَلَّحَةُ الْعَرَبِيَّةُ السُّورِيَّةُ
Gen. Abdul Karim Mahmoud Ibrahim
Personnel
Military age18
ConscriptionYes
Active personnel170,000[3]
Reserve personnel50,000[3] (NDF)
Expenditures
Budget$1.8 billion (2019)
Percent of GDP5% (2011)
Industry
Domestic suppliersSyrian Scientific Studies and Research Center (CERS)[4][5]
Foreign suppliers Armenia[6]
 Belarus[6]
 Bulgaria[7]
 China[6]
 Iran[8][6]
 North Korea[6]
 Iraq[6]
 Russia[6]
 Venezuela[6]
 Cuba[6]
 Laos[6]
 Vietnam
 Pakistan[6]
Related articles
HistoryMilitary history of Syria
RanksMilitary ranks of Syria

The Syrian Arab Armed Forces (SAAF;

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.[9] Minister of Defense holds the position of Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Armed Forces.[10]

The military is a conscripted force; males serve in the military at age 18, but they are exempted from service if they do not have a brother who can take care of their parents. Since the

draft dodging,[11] reaching between 178,000 and 220,000 soldiers in the army,[12] in addition to 80,000 to 100,000 irregular forces. By 2023, the number of active soldiers in the Syrian military increased to 170,000.[13] Also in 2023, the number of active paramilitary and reserve forces in the Syrian military may have decreased by as much as 50,000.[13][14]

History

From Mandate to Independence

The

Syria–Lebanon Campaign
.

After the

Kurds and Circassians. By the end of 1945 the army numbered about 5,000 and the gendarmerie some 3,500. In April 1946 the last French officers were forced to leave Syria due to sustained resistance offensives; the Levantine Forces then became the regular armed forces of the newly independent state and grew rapidly to about 12,000 by the time of the 1948 Arab−Israeli War, the first of four Arab−Israeli wars involving Syria between 1948 and 1986.[16]

After the Second World War

The Syrian Armed Forces fought in the

1954 Syrian coup d'etat. Further coups followed, each attended by a purge of the officer corps to remove supporters of the losers from the force.[18]

In 1963 the Military Committee of the

March 1963 Syrian coup d'etat. Following the coup, Gen. Amin al-Hafiz discharged many ranking Sunni officers, thereby, Stratfor says, "providing openings for hundreds of Alawites to fill top-tier military positions during the 1963–1965 period on the grounds of being opposed to Arab unity. This measure tipped the balance in favor of Alawite officers who staged a coup in 1966 and for the first time placed Damascus in the hands of the Alawites."[20]

The Armed Forces were involved in the 1967

cease-fire line has been respected by both sides, with very few incidents until the Syrian civil war.[21][22]

Syria was invited into Lebanon by that country's president in 1976, to intervene on the side of the Lebanese government against

Palestinian Liberation Army (PLA)).[27]

A year after Israel invaded and occupied Southern Lebanon during the 1982 Lebanon War, the Lebanese government failed to extend the ADF's mandate, thereby effectively ending its existence, although not the Syrian or Israeli military presence in Lebanon.[28] Eventually the Syrian presence became known as the Syrian occupation of Lebanon.

Occupation of Lebanon

Main article: Syrian occupation of Lebanon

Syrian forces, still technically known as the Arab Deterrent Force, lingered in Lebanon throughout the

Rafiq al-Hariri
, as well as continued meddling in Lebanese affairs, and an international investigation into the Hariri killing and several subsequent bomb attacks has been launched by the UN.

Other engagements

Engagements since 1979 have included the Muslim Brotherhood insurgency (1979–82), notably including the

Operation Desert Storm, as Syrian forces did participate in helping dislodge and drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait City. Total losses sustained were two dead and one wounded. There were indications the Syrian government had been prepared to double its force to 40,000.[33]

Modernisation

Further information: Russia–Syria relations § Arms contracts

In recent years Syria has relied on Russian arms purchases to obtain modern weapons. Purchases have included anti-tank and air defense systems. In early September 2008 the Syrian government ordered

Sergei Lavrov
asserted that the sale wouldn't upset the balance of power in the Middle East and were "in line with . . . international law."

Russia aims to turn the

Russian naval base in Tartus into a permanent base. Israel and the US oppose further arms sales to Syria due to fears that the weapons could fall under the control of Iran or Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.[35]

Syrian Civil War

A Syrian soldier manning a checkpoint near Damascus.

Because of the violence against the people by the Syrian Army and the detention of a great number of people, some soldiers from different religions and sects (Sunni, Shia, Druze and Christian) defected in protest at orders to kill protesters in April 2011[citation needed]. By 2014, the number of defecting officers had reached approximately 170,000, from different ranks. They formed the Free Syrian Army on 29 July 2011 (interview with Riad Al-Asaad - the founder and leader of the Free Syrian Army), and at the beginning of the conflict they depended on light weapons. The arming of the Free Syrian Army began in mid-2012.

In March 2012 the Syrian government issued new travel restrictions for military-aged males. Under the new restrictions, reported by

local Syrian news outlets, all males between 18–42 were banned from traveling outside the country.[36] In a late June 2012 interview given by the FSA's Asharq Al-Awsat he claimed Riad al-Asaad said that about 20–30 Syrian officers defected to Turkey each day.[37]

On 18 July 2012 the Syrian Defense Minister

Hisham Bekhityar and Head of the 4th Army Division Maher Al Assad—brother of President Assad—were also injured in the explosion.[39]

Since the start of the

conflict in Syria, human rights groups say that the majority of abuses have been committed by the Syrian government's forces, and UN investigations have concluded that the government's abuses are the greatest in both gravity and scale.[40][41] The branches of the Syrian Armed Forces that have committed war crimes include at least the Syrian Arab Army,[42][43] Syrian Arab Air Force[44] and the Syrian Military Intelligence.[45] However the Syrian authorities deny these accusations[46] and claim that irregular armed groups with foreign support[47][48] are behind the atrocities, including Al Qaeda linked Insurgents.[49]

The numbers in the Syrian armed forces have reduced considerably during the Civil War, although estimates vary.

Syrian Armed Forces size during the Civil War [50]
Year Army personnel Air Force personnel Total: Army + Air Force
2011
220,000
100,000
320,000
2014
110,000
63,000
173,000

Russian sources give higher estimates. In 2011, 300,000 reserves were reported in addition to regular forces.[

LifeNews still reported the same figures.[52]

Despite shrinking by nearly half from the 2011 beginning of the civil war by 2014, the Armed Forces have become much more flexible and capable, especially in anti-guerilla warfare.[53] Their modus operandi switched from traditional Soviet-modeled conventional military forces into a force of smaller groups fighting in close-quarters guerrilla combat with an increasing role for junior officers.[53]

In September 2018,

Russian intervention into the war.[54]

Structure

Demographics and military service

Assad government
's support base.

With its headquarters in Damascus, the Syrian military consists of air, ground and naval forces. Active personnel were estimated as 295,000 in 2011, with an additional 314,000 reserves. Paramilitary forces were estimated at 108,000 in 2011.[55][56] Estimates of the declining size of the armed forces over time include[11] 141,400 as of June 2019. (50% shrinkage according to sources)[57][58] By 2023, the number of active soldiers in the Syrian military increased to 170,000.[13] Also in 2023, the number of active paramilitary and reserve forces in the Syrian military decreased up to 50,000.[13]

In 2011, the majority of the Syrian military were

Sunni, but most of the military leadership were Alawites.[20][56] Alawites made up 12% of the pre-war Syrian population, but 70% of the career soldiers in the Syrian Army are Sunnis.[20][59] A similar imbalance is seen in the officer corps, where some 80% of the officers are Alawites. The military's most elite divisions, the Republican Guard and the 4th Armored Division, which are commanded by Bashar al-Assad's brother Maher, are exclusively Alawite. Most of Syria's 300,000 conscripts in 2011 were Sunni.[20][56]

Before the start of the Syrian Civil War, the obligatory military service period was being decreased over time. In 2005, it was reduced from two and a half years to two years, in 2008 to 21 months and in 2011 to a year and a half.[60] Since the Syrian Civil War the Syrian government has implemented a retention system for those in compulsory service (conscript retention into service after the specified period has passed) and enacted new regulations, with citizens who have completed mandatory conscription being called up for reserve duty.[11] By 2020, with the Syrian government regaining control over a large portion of Syrian territory, the General Staff of the Army and Armed Forces issued several dismissal decisions from service (retention and reserve) in batches.[61]

Soldiers of the Syrian Armed Forces are divided into two main categories:[62]

  • Volunteers are those who join its ranks voluntarily after they reach eighteen years of age, of all ranks, specializations, and both sexes. They are promoted according to the internal regulations and receive a salary and compensation in return.
  • The assigned, where males are called (exclusively) to serve in the army when they reach the age of eighteen and until they reach the age of forty-two, but they are exempted from service as long as they are single to their mothers, or do not have another brother capable of taking care of their parents or have an obstacle, a health condition prevents them from performing the service.

There are also civilian employees and reserves in the ranks of the armed forces who are called to serve in times of war and emergencies.

Administrative Departments

Syrian Army

Main article:
Syrian Arab Army
Operation Desert Shield
. The soldier is wearing a Soviet-made Model ShMS nuclear-biological-chemical warfare mask.

In 1987 Joshua Sinai of the

Syrian Arab Army (SAA) was the dominant military service, and as such controlled the senior-most posts in the armed forces and had the most manpower, approximately 80% of the combined services. In 1987 Joshua Sinai wrote that the major development in structural organization was the establishment of an additional divisional framework based on the special forces and the organization of ground formations into three corps.[16] In 2010, the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated army regulars or professionals at 220,000, with an additional 280,000 reserves. That figure was unchanged in the 2011 edition of the Military Balance,[55] but in the 2013 edition, in the midst of the war, the IISS estimated that army strength was 110,000.[68] By the end of 2018, analysts estimated the SAA to have just 100,000 combat-ready troops.[68]

Between 2015 and 2018, the Syrian military under the Ministry of Defense underwent major structural changes, with the cooperation of

Syrian government invested major sums in rebuilding the Syrian military through force buildup and reorganization measures, including with new personnel appointments.[4][70]

By 2019, the army's formations included three army corps (the 1st, 2nd and 3rd), one assault corps (5th), eight armored divisions, five mechanized divisions, two semi-autonomous reserve divisions, three armored/airborne special forces divisions and seven border guard regiments.[71][68] Evolution of the command structure, training and military system continued.[72]

Reports since the beginning of the war clarified the organisation of the army. In addition to the 14th Special Forces Division, the 15th Special Forces Division was identified by Human Rights Watch in 2011.[73] New Special Forces units formed during the war included 25th Special Mission Forces Division.[74] Units reporting to the Chief of Staff are 4th Armored Division and the Republican Guard. The 4th Armored Division became one of the Syrian government's most trusted security forces.[75]

By 2023, the number of active soldiers in the Syrian Arab Army increased to 130,000.[3]

Syrian Air Force

Main article:
Syrian Arab Air Force

The

Syrian Arab Air Force is the aviation branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. It was established in 1948 and saw combat in 1948, 1967, 1973 and in 1982 against Israel. It has seen combat against militant groups on Syrian soil from 2011 to 2012, during the Syrian civil war. Presently there are at least 15 Syrian air force bases throughout the country. In 2011, Russian sources reported 40,000 personnel in the Air Force,[citation needed] while Reuters reported 100,000.[56] In 2022 the Air Force was reportedly estimated at 15,000 strong.[76]

Syrian Navy

Main article: Syrian Navy

In 1950 the

Osa II missile boats), three old submarines, two submarine chasers, four mine warfare vessels, eight gunboats, six patrol craft, four missile corvettes (on order), three landing craft (on order), one torpedo recovery vessel and, as part of its coastal defense system, Sepal shore-based, anti-ship missiles with a range of 300 km. In 2011, the Navy was estimated have 5,000 personnel.[56] In 2022 it was estimated at 4,000.[78]

Syrian Air Defence Force

Main article: Syrian Air Defense Force

In 1986, according to the Library of Congress Country Studies, the Air Defence Command, within the Army Command but also composed of Air Force personnel, numbered approximately 60,000.[16] In 1987 units included 20 air defense brigades (with approximately 95 SAM batteries) and two air defense regiments. The Air Defence Command had command access to interceptor aircraft and radar facilities. Air defenses included SA-5 long-range SAM batteries around Damascus and Aleppo, with additional SA-6 and SA-8 mobile SAM units deployed along Syria's side of the Lebanese border and in eastern Lebanon.

At some later point in time, the Air Defence Command was upgraded into a separate Syrian Air Defense Force.[79] In 2022, it was reported as 21,000 strong.[80]

Paramilitary forces

See:

List of armed groups in the Syrian Civil War#Syrian government and allies for more information on current paramilitaries due to the ongoing Syrian civil war
.

Role of women in the Armed Forces

Female Syrian soldiers with an MTs-116M rifle in Jobar, December 2015.

As the

Syrian Civil War progressed and casualties mounted, more and more positions were opened to women. The National Defense Force allows female volunteers into its ranks, mainly in securing checkpoints. In 2013, the Republican Guard also formed a female section, an all-female tank battalion of 800 strong, nicknamed "Lionesses of Defense", fighting within the limits of Damascus.[88]

Weapons, uniforms and awards

See also:
Equipment of the Syrian Army

Weapons

A Syrian military policeman standing guard as his unit prepares for the arrival of a visiting dignitary during the Gulf War.

The breakup of the

Scud-D, with a range of up to 700 kilometers, is allegedly being developed by Syria with the help of North Korea and Iran, according to Eyal Zisser.[89]

Syria received significant financial aid from Persian Gulf Arab states as a result of its participation in the

military spending. In 2005, Russia forgave Syria of three-fourths, or about $9.8 billion, of its $13.4 billion Soviet-era debt. Russia wrote off the debt to renew arms sales with Syria.[90] As of 2011, arms contracts with Russia, Syria's main arms supplier, were worth at least $4 billion.[91][92][93][94] Syria has conducted research and produced weapons of mass destruction.[95]

Uniforms (1987)

Operation Desert Shield. The soldier is armed with an AK-47
assault rifle.

In 1987, according to a

Library of Congress Country Study on Syria, service uniforms for Syrian military officers generally followed the British Army style, although army combat clothing followed the older British model. Each uniform had two coats: a long one for dress and a short jacket for informal wear. Army officer uniforms were khaki in summer, olive in winter. Certain Army and Air Defense personnel (i.e., commandos and paratroops) may have worn camouflage uniforms. Air force officers had two uniforms for each season: a khaki and a light gray for summer and a dark blue and a light gray in winter. Naval officers wore white in summer and navy blue in winter while lower ranks wear the traditional bell bottoms and white blouse. The uniform for naval chief petty officers was a buttoned jacket, similar to that worn by American chief petty officers. Officers had a variety of headgear, including a service cap, garrison cap, and beret (linen in summer and wool in winter). The color of the beret varied by season and according to the officer's unit.[96]

Syrian Commando and Paratroop uniforms consist of

woodland-patterned camouflage fatigues along with combat boots, helmets and bulletproof vests. Headgear consisted of a red or orange beret. The Syrian military provides NBC uniforms to soldiers to remain effective in an environment affected by biological or chemical agents. This uniform consisted of a Russian-made Model ShMS-41 mask similar to those made in the Desert Storm conflict.[97] Previous models of the ShMS used a hose, while the improved "ShmS-41" used a canister-style Respirator.[98][99]
It is difficult to assess how well equipped the Syrian Arab Army is. Although hundreds of hours of videos showing dead and captured Syrian soldiers filmed by rebels have been uploaded to social media, none show this equipment having been carried by or issued to frontline soldiers.

Rank insignia (1987)

Main article: Military ranks of Syria

In 1987, according to a Library of Congress Country Study on Syria, the rank insignia of Syrian commissioned officers were identical for both the army and air force. These were gold on a bright green shoulder board for the army and gold on a bright blue board for the air force. Officer ranks were standard, although the highest is the equivalent of lieutenant general, a rank held in 1986 only by the commander in chief and the minister of defence. Navy officer rank insignia were gold stripes worn on the lower sleeve. The highest-ranking officer in Syria's navy is the equivalent of lieutenant general. Army and air force rank for warrant officers were indicated by gold stars on an olive green shield worn on the upper left arm. Lower noncommissioned ranks were indicated by upright and inverted chevrons worn on the upper left arm.[96]

Awards and decorations

Although some twenty-five orders and medals were authorized, generally only senior officers and warrant officers wear medal ribbons. The following were some important Syrian awards:

Order of Umayyad, Medal of Military Honor, the War Medal, Medal for Courage, Yarmuk Medal, Wounded in Action Medal, and Medal of 8 March 1963.[96]

See also

  • List of armed groups in the Syrian Civil War
  • Human rights violations during the Syrian civil war#Syrian armed and security forces

Notes

Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Syria: A Country Study. Federal Research Division.

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References

Further reading

External links
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