Syrian Army
Syrian Army | |
---|---|
الْجَيْشُ الْعَرَبيُّ السُّورِيُّ | |
Founded | 1 August 1945[1] 1971 (current form) |
Country | Syria |
Type | Army |
Role | Land warfare |
Size | 130,000[2]
Military age: 18 Conscription: |
Part of | Arabic : حُمَاةَ الدِّيَارِ" (Guardians of the Homeland) |
Colors |
|
Anniversaries | August 1st |
Engagements | |
Commanders | |
The Syrian Army (SyA or SA), officially the Syrian Arab Army (SyAA or SAA) (
Since 1946, it has played a major role in Syria's governance, mounting six military coups: two in 1949, including the
History
In 1919, the French formed the
1946–1970
As Syria gained independence in 1946, its leaders envisioned a division-sized army. On June 19, 1947, the Syrian Army took the survivors of Pan Am Flight 121 to the Presbyterian mission hospital at Deir ez-Zor. The 1st Brigade was ready by the time of the Syrian war against Israel on May 15, 1948. It consisted of two infantry battalions and one armored battalion. The 2nd Brigade was organized during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and also included two infantry battalions and one armored battalion.[7]
At the time of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the army was small, poorly armed, and poorly trained. "Paris had relied primarily on French regulars to keep the peace in Syria and had neglected indigenous forces. Consequently, training was lackadaisical, discipline lax, and staff work almost unheard of. ... there were about 12,000 men in the Syrian army. These troops were mostly grouped into three infantry brigades and an armored force of about battalion size," writes Pollack.[8]
Between 1949 and 1966, a series of military coups destroyed the stability of the government and any remaining professionalism within the army. In March 1949, the chief of staff, General
The
However, in 1967 the army did appear to have some strength. It had around 70,000 personnel, roughly 550 tanks and assault guns, 500 APCs, and nearly 300 artillery pieces.
Judging from reports of 1967–1970, including the reporting of the 5th Infantry Division in 1970, the Army appears to have formed its first
1970–2010
On 18 September 1970, the Syrian government became involved in
Pollack says it is likely that they intended to overthrow the Jordanian monarchy itself. Despite defeating the Jordanian Army at al-Ramtha on 21 September, after fierce air attacks on 22 September, the Syrians stopped the attack and began to retreat.The retreat was caused by Jordan's appeal for international aid : "The report said that Hussein “not only appealed for the moral and diplomatic support of the United Kingdom and the United States, coupled with the threat of international action, but had also asked for an air strike by Israel against Syrian troops.” (New York Post)[17]
After 1970 further Syrian engagements included:
- October War against Israel[18]
- PLOand Israel)
The Syrian armed forces have also been involved in suppressing dissident movements within Syria, for example the Islamist uprising in Syria in 1979–1982. In March 1980 the 3rd Armored Division and detachments from the Defense Companies arrived in Aleppo. The division was under the command of General Shafiq Fayadh, Hafiz Assad's first cousin. The troops sealed "off whole quarters and carr[ied] out house-to-house searches, often preceded by tank fire."[19] Hundreds of suspects were rounded up. Only two conventional Army brigades deployed to Hama in 1982, the 3rd Armored Division's 47th Armored and 21st Mechanized Brigades. Three quarters of the officers and one third of the soldiers in the two brigades were Alawites.[20] Most of the repression was carried out by the Defense Companies and the Special Forces. Meanwhile, the Special Forces were isolating and combing through Hama, killing and capturing suspected government opponents.[21]
Syrian forces fought Israel during the 1982 Lebanon War.
In 1984, Major General
Bennett dates the establishment of corps in the Syrian Army to 1985. Writing forty years later, Tom Cooper says "..despite the establishment of.. corps.. most division commanders continued reporting directly to the President. Correspondingly, not only the Chief of Staff of the Syrian Armed Forces but also the Corps HQ exercised only a limited operational control over the Army's divisions."[24] Declassified CIA documents from February 1987 say that the 3rd Corps and 17th and 18th Armoured Divisions were established in 1986.[25]
The 9th Armoured Division served in the
In 1994, Haidar expressed objections to the Syrian president's decision to bring Bashar home from his studies in Britain and groom him for the succession after the death of Basil, the eldest Assad son.[22] Soon afterwards, on 3 September 1994, Jane's Defence Weekly reported that then-President Hafez Assad had dismissed at least 16 senior military commanders. Among them was Haidar, then commander of the Special Forces, and General Shafiq Fayadh, a cousin of the President who had commanded the "crack" 3rd Armored Division for nearly two decades. The 3rd Armored Division was "deployed around Damascus." JDW commented that "the Special Forces and the 3rd Armored Division, along with the 1st Armored Division are key elements in the security structure that protects Assad's government. Any command changes involving those formations have considerable political significance." Post-uprising reporting indicated the 1st Armored Division had historically been at al-Kiswah.[23]
On 29 September 2004, Jane's Defence Weekly reported that Syria had begun to redeploy elements of one or more Syrian Army special forces regiments based in the coastal hills a few kilometres south of Beirut in Lebanon. A senior Lebanese Army officer told JDW that the 3,000 troops involved would return to Syria.[27]
Cordesman wrote that in 2006 the Syrian Army had "organized two corps that reported to the Land Forces General Staff and the Commander of the Land Force."
As of 2010, the army's formations included three army corps (the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd), eight armored divisions (with one independent armored brigade), three mechanized divisions, one armored-special forces division and ten independent airborne-special forces brigades.[28] The army had 11 divisional formations reported in 2011, with a fall in the number of armored divisions reported from the 2010 edition from eight to seven.[29] The independent armored brigade had been replaced by an independent tank regiment.
In 2009 and 2010, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, the Syrian army comprised 220,000 regular personnel, and the entire armed forces (including the navy, air force and air defenses) had 325,000 regular troops.[30] Additionally, it had about 290,000 reservists.[30][31][32]
Syrian Civil War
Military equipment in April 2011 (including storage)
The vast majority of Syrian military equipment was Soviet manufactured.[33][34]
- ≈ 9,300 armoured fighting vehicles (including in storage):
- ≈ 4,800 main battle tanks
- ≈ 4,500 armored personnel carriers
- ≈ 6,400 towed artillery pieces:
- ≈ 850 self-propelled artillery pieces:
- ≈ 450 self-propelled howitzers
- ≈ 400 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns
- ≈ 450
- 2,190+ anti-tank guided weapon launchers
- 500 multiple launch rocket systems
- 84 tactical ballistic missile launchers
- 4,235+ surface-to-air missile launchers:
- 4,000+ MANPADS
- 235 self-propelled air-defense systems
- 4,000+
Defections
At October 1, 2011, according to high-ranking defected Syrian Colonel Riad Assaad, 10,000 soldiers, including high-ranking officers, had deserted the Syrian Army.[35] Some of these defectors had formed the
At 16 November 2011, Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the UK-based
By March 15, 2012, many more soldiers, unhappy with crackdowns on pro-democracy protesters, switched sides and a Turkish official said that 60,000 soldiers had deserted the Syrian army, including 20,000 since February 20. It was added that most of the deserters were junior officers and soldiers.[39] By 5 July 2012, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated "tens of thousands" soldiers to have defected.[32] By August 2012, 40 Brigadier generals from the Army had defected to the opposition army, out of a total of 1,200 generals.[40]
On June 14, 2013, 73 Syrian Army officers and their families, some 202 people in total, sought refuge in Turkey. Amongst their number were seven generals and 20 colonels.[41] In 2013, Agence France Press wrote on 'Syria's diminished security forces.'[31]
Strength impaired
Up until July 2012, the scale of defections from the Syrian Army, though hard to quantify, was too small to make an impact on the strength of that army, according to Aram Nerguizian from the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.[32] Strategically important units of the Syrian armed forces are always controlled by Alawite officers; defecting soldiers – by July 2012 "tens of thousands" according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights – are mainly Sunni without access to vital command and control, Nerguizian said,[32] however the formed Syrian Minister of Defense General Dawoud Rajiha killed in the 18 July 2012 Damascus bombing was a Christian.
The army in Syria is the power structure. The armed forces would fight to an end. It would be a bloodbath, literally, because the army would fight to protect not only the institution of the army but the regime itself, because the army and the regime is one and the same.
—
Analyst Joseph Holliday wrote in 2013 that "the Assad government has from the beginning of the conflict been unable to mobilize all of its forces without risking largescale defections. The single greatest liability that the Assad regime has faced in employing its forces has been the challenge of relying on units to carry out orders to brutalize the opposition."[43] This has resulted in Bashar's following his father's precedent by attaching regular army units to more reliable forces (Special Forces, Republican Guard, or 4th Armored Division). When Hafez al-Assad directed the suppression of revolts in Hama in 1982, this technique was also used.[44]
In 2014, analyst Charles Lister wrote that "As of April 1, 2014, the SAA had incurred at least 35,601 fatalities, which when combined with a reasonable ratio of 3 wounded personnel for every soldier killed and approximately 50,000 defections, suggests the SAA presently commands roughly 125,000 personnel. This loss of manpower is exacerbated by Syria's longentrenched problem of having to selectively deploy forces based on their perceived trustworthiness."[44] The International Institute for Strategic Studies in London calculated that by August 2013 the strength of the Syrian army had, compared with 2010, roughly been cut in half, due to defections, desertions and casualties: it now counted 110,000 troops.[31]
The Syrian Arab Army suffers from serious recruitment issues as the Syrian Civil War drags on, with military age men across sectarian lines no longer willing to join or serve their conscription terms. These issues are especially notable among the Druze population, who have clashed with regime security forces and broken Druze youths out of regime imprisonment to avoid them serving in the army.[45] Increasingly, Assad's Alawite base of support refuse to send their sons to the military due to massive casualty rates among military age men in their community; according to pro oppositions sources a third of 250,000 Alawite men of fighting age have been killed in the Syrian Civil War, leading to major tensions between the sect and the Syrian government.[46]
As of mid-2018, then-Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that the Syrian Arab Army had regained its pre-2011 strength levels, recovering from manpower shortages earlier in the Syrian Civil War.[47]
Roles of 3rd, 11th, 17th and 18th Divisions
The 3rd Armored Division has deployed elements of three brigades from its bases around Qutayfah to Deraa, Zabadani, and Hama, while the 11th Armored Division has stayed close to its bases in Homs and Hama.[48]
The European Council named Major General Wajih Mahmud as commander of the
Information from Holliday 2013 suggests that the reserve armored division is the 17th (rather than any other designation), which was responsible for eastern Syria.[51] The division's 93rd Brigade left Idlib to secure Raqqa Governorate in early 2012.[52] Following the reported capture of Raqqa on 3–6 March 2013, elements of the 17th Division remained under siege to the north of the city in October 2013.[53]
Relationship with National Defense Force
The
Struggling with reliability issues and defections, officers of the SAA increasingly prefer the part-time volunteers of the NDF, who they regard as more motivated and loyal, over regular army conscripts to conduct infantry operations and act as support for advancing tanks.[55]
An officer in Homs, who asked not to be identified, said the army was increasingly playing a logistical and directive role, while
The NDF continues to play a significant role in military operations across Syria despite the formation of other elite units, many of which receive direct assistance from Russia.
Demographics
Since 2022, the Minister of Defense and also Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Army and the Armed Forces Lieutenant General Ali Mahmoud Abbas, and Major General Mufid Hassan, Deputy Chief of the General Staff, are some of the Sunni Muslims in the positions of power.[60] Some volunteer brigades, such as Arab Nationalist Guard, are made up of Sunni Syrians and other Sunnis from the Middle Eastern region that adhere to pan-Arab ideals.[61]
Structure in 2001
Before 2011, it was difficult to access reliable information about the SAA because of the Damascus government's sensitivity to potential espionage, particularly by Israel.[62]
Richard Bennett wrote in 2001 that "..corps [were] formed in 1985 to give the Army more flexibility and to improve combat efficiency by decentralizing the command structure, absorbing at least some of the lessons learned during the Israeli invasion of the Lebanon in 1982."[63] The organization and military doctrine of the army followed the Soviet model.[64]
Richard Bennett's estimate of the 2001 order of battle was:
- 1st Corps HQ Damascus, which covered from Golan Heights, the fortified zone and south to Der'a near the Jordanian border.
- 5th Armored Division, which included the 17th and 96th Armored Brigades and the 112th Mechanized Brigade
- 6th Armored Division, with the 12th and 98th Armored Brigades and the 11th Mechanized Brigades
- 7th Mechanized Division, with the 58th and 68th Armored Brigades and the 78th Mechanized Brigade
- 8th Armored Division, which included the 62nd and 65th Armored Brigades and the 32nd Mechanized Brigade
- 9th Armored Division, with the 43rd and 91st Armored Brigades and the 52nd Mechanized Brigade.
Bennett said the 1st Corps also [had] four independent special forces regiments, including two trained for heliborne commando operations against the Israeli signals intelligence & observation posts on Mount Hermon and elsewhere in the Golan Heights.
- Zabadani, covers north of Damascus, to Homs and includes Lebanon.
- Bennett said in 2001 that the corps' principal units were believed to include:
- 1st Armored Division, with the 44th and 46th Armored Brigades and the 42nd Mechanized Brigade
- 3rd Armored Division, with the 47th and 82nd Armored Brigades and the 132nd Mechanized Brigade
- 11th Armored Division, with the 60th and 67th Armored Brigades and the 87th Mechanized Brigade
- 4th Mechanized Division with the 1st Armored Brigade and the 61st and 89th Mechanized Brigades
- 10th Mechanized Division, headquartered in Shtoura, Lebanon. Its main units [were in 2001] deployed to control the strategic Beirut-Damascus highway with the 123rd Mechanized Brigade near Yanta, the 51st Armored Brigade near Zahle in the Beqaa Valley and the 85th Armored Brigade, deployed around the complex of positions at Dahr al-Baidar.
- three other heavy brigades from the 3rd and 11th Armored Divisions [were] known to be regularly deployed to eastern Lebanon.
- there [were] five special forces regiments in the Lebanon.
- 3rd Corps HQ Aleppo, based in the north and covered Hama, the Turkish and Iraqi borders, the Mediterranean coastline and was tasked with protecting the complex of chemical and biological warfare and missile production and launch facilities.
- The 2nd Reserve Armored Division, with the 14th and 15th Armored Brigades and the 19th Mechanized Brigade. The 2nd [was] also believed to operate as the main armored forces training formation. It seems likely that the "2nd" designation, reported in 2001, was incorrect, as it has not been reported during the Syrian Civil War.
- Other units under the control of this corps included four independent infantry brigades, one border guard brigade, one independent armored regiment, effectively a brigade group, and one special forces regiment.
- the Coastal Defense Brigade, which [operated] largely as an independent unit within the 3rd Corps area, [was] headquartered in the naval base of Hamidieh and Tartus. Each Battalion has four batteries of both the short range SSC-3 Styx and long range SSC-1B Sepal missile systems.
- The 2nd Reserve Armored Division, with the 14th and 15th Armored Brigades and the 19th Mechanized Brigade. The 2nd [was] also believed to operate as the main armored forces training formation. It seems likely that the "2nd" designation, reported in 2001, was incorrect, as it has not been reported during the
The IISS listed smaller formations in 2006 as:[65]
- Four independent Infantry Brigades
- Ten independent Airborne Special Forces Regiments (Seven regiments attached to 2nd Corps)
- Two independent Artillery Brigades
- Two independent Anti-tank Brigades
- Surface-to-surface Missile Command with three SSM Brigades (each with three SSM battalions),
- One brigade with FROG-7,
- One brigade with Scud-B/C/D.
- One brigade with SS-21 Scarab,
- One brigade with
- Three coastal defense missile brigades
- One brigade with 4 SS-C-1B Sepal launchers,
- One brigade with 6 P-15 Termit launchers, alternative designation SS-C-3 'Styx'
- One brigade with 6+ P-800 Oniks launchers,
- One Border Guard Brigade
Protecting Damascus:
- Defense companies were transformed into the armored division equivalent Unit 569, which in 1984 became the 4th Armored Division.)[66]
- The Republican GuardArmored Division, with three Armored brigades, one Mechanized brigade, and one artillery regiment.
Basic structure until 2011:[67]
- 3 Corps (Falaq): 50,000 men in 3–4 divisions each
- 14 Divisions (Firqa): 5,000–15,000 men in 5–6 brigades/regiments each
- More than 40 Brigades (Liwa): 2,500–3,500 men in 5–6 battalions (1–3 armored/mechanized + artillery/ADA/engineers) each
- Mechanized:
- 105 IFVs in 3 mechanized battalions
- 41 Tanks in 1 armored battalion
- 3,500 soldiers
- Armored:
- 105 Tanks in 3 armored battalions
- 31 IFVs in 1 mechanized battalion
- 2,500 soldiers
- Mechanized:
- More than 20 Regiments (Fawj): 1,500 men
- Light Infantry: 1,500 soldiers in 3 infantry battalions
- Artillery: 45 howitzers and 1,500 soldiers in 3 artillery battalions
- Battalion (Katiba): 300–500 men in 4–5 companies
- Company (Sariya): 60–80 men
Structure in 2022
Between 2015 and 2018, the Syrian Arab Army underwent many structural changes, with the cooperation of Russia and Iran.[68] In addition, new units were created by 2021.[69] As of August 2022, according to Gregory Waters, the structure as the order of battle (at full strength) was:[70][71]
Units reporting to the Chief of Staff
- Republican Guard
- 100th Artillery Regiment
- 101st Security Regiment[72]
- 102nd Security Regiment
- 103rd Commando Brigade
- 104th Airborne Brigade[73]
- 105th Mechanized Brigade[73]
- 107th Artillery Regiment[69]
- 108th Armored Regiment[69]
- 109th Armored Regiment[69]
- 151th Mechanized Regiment[69]
- 152nd Mechanized Regiment[69]
- 800th Regiment[74]
- Lionesses of Defense Armored Brigade[75][76][77]
- 30th Division[78]
- 4th Armoured Division[73]
- 38th Armored Brigade[81]
- 40th Armored Brigade
- 41st Armored Brigade
- 42nd Armored Brigade
- 138th Mechanized Brigade
- 154th Artillery Regiment[81]
- 333rd Infantry Regiment
- 555th Special Forces (Airborne) Regiment
- 666th Infantry Regiment[70]
- Al-Imam Hussein Brigade[82]
- Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba Syrian-wing[83]
Special Forces units formed during the Syrian Civil War:[a]
- 25th Special Mission Forces Division[87]
- 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Special Forces (Airborne) Regiments[71]
- Independent Armored Regiment
- Independent Artillery Regiment
1st Corps
- 5th Mechanized Division
- 6th Armored Division (formed in 2015)[70]
- 76th, 85th and 88th Armored Brigades
- 55th Mechanized Brigade
- 45th Special Forces Regiment[79]
- 7th Mechanized Division
- 88th, 90th and 121st Mechanized Brigades[79]
- 78th Armored Brigade
- 70th Artillery Brigade
- 9th Armored Division
- 15th Special Forces Division[92]
2nd Corps
- 1st Armored Division
- 61st, 91st and 153rd Armored Brigades
- 57th, 58th and 68th Mechanized Brigades
- 171st Infantry Brigade
- 141st Artillery Regiment
- 167th Anti-tank Regiment
- 2nd Armored Division (formed in 2015)[70]
- 10th Mechanized Division
- 14th Special Forces Division[100]
- 36th, 554th and 556th Special Forces Regiments
3rd Corps
- 3rd Armored Division
- 8th Armored Division (formed in 2015)[104]
- 33rd and 47th Armored Brigades[105]
- 45th Mechanized Brigade
- 45th Artillery Regiment
- 11th Armored Division[106]
- 17th Reserve Division
- 18th Armored Division[110]
- 131st, 134th and 167th Armored Brigades
- 120th Mechanized Brigade
- 64th Artillery Regiment
- Border Guard Forces[111]
5th Assault Corps
- 1st Assault Brigade[109]
- 13th Battalion
- 1579th Battalion[112]
- 2nd Assault Brigade[113]
- 3rd Assault Brigade[70]
- 103rd Battalion
- 4th Assault Brigade[70]
- 5th Assault Brigade[70]
- 1st Infantry Regiment
- 2nd Infantry Regiment
- 6th Assault Brigade[70]
- 79th Infantry Battalion
- 86th Infantry Battalion
- 7th Assault Brigade[70]
- 3rd Infantry Battalion
- 8th Assault Brigade[70]
- al-Quds Brigade[114]
- 103rd and 148th Artillery Brigades[116][117]
Military equipment
The majority of Syrian military equipment was manufactured by Soviet Union, Russia, China and Iran.[118][119] Military equipment of the Syrian Army as of 2020:[120][121]
- ≈ 5,900 armoured fighting vehicles (including in storage):
- ≈ 2,700 main battle tanks
- ≈ 2,400 armored personnel carriers
- ≈ 800 reconnaissance vehicles
- ≈ 2,800 utility vehicles (including in storage):
- ≈ 300 military engineering
- ≈ 2500 logistics and all-terrain vehicles
- ≈ 1,600 mortars
- ≈ 5,130 towed artillery pieces:
- ≈ 2,330 field guns/anti-tank guns/howitzers
- ≈ 2,800 anti-aircraft guns
- ≈ 600 self-propelled artillery pieces:
- ≈ 350 self-propelled howitzers
- ≈ 250 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns
- ≈ 350
- ≈ 2,500 anti-tank guided weapon launchers
- ≈ 600 multiple launch rocket systems
- ≈ 100 tactical ballistic missile launchers
- 5,460+ surface-to-air missile launchers:
- 5,000+ MANPADS
- 460+ self-propelled air-defense systems
- 5,000+
- ≈ N/A unmanned aerial vehicles
- ≈ N/A super-sonic cruise missiles
Uniforms, weapons and rank insignia
Uniforms and personnel equipment
Service uniforms for Syrian officers generally follow the British Army style, although army combat clothing follows the Soviet model.[122] Each uniform has two coats: a long one for dress and a short jacket for informal wear. Army officer uniforms are khaki in summer, olive in winter. All Army (including paratroops and special forces) and Air Defense Force personnel wear camouflage uniforms.[123] Among the camouflage are Red Lizard, Syrian Leaf patterns, EMR Desert; a locally-made copies of the ERDL and M81 Woodland.[124][123]
Officers have a variety of headgear, including a service cap, garrison cap, and beret (linen in summer and wool in winter).[124] The color of the beret varies according to the officer's unit. The most common beret color is black, for Infantry, Engineering, Signals and supporting arms personnel, followed by green, for Armored, Mechanized and Artillery personnel, red for the Republican Guard and Military Police, and maroon (blue) for the Special Forces.[125]
Since 2009, the SAA had acquired large numbers of Chinese-produced combat gear, including helmets and bullet proof vests.
Service weapons
Service weapons of the Syrian Arab Army consist of stocks of
Ranks
The rank insignia of
Rank group | General / flag officers | Senior officers | Junior officers | Officer cadet | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Syrian Arab Army[134]
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
فريق Fariq |
عماد أول Eimad 'awal |
عماد Eimad |
لواء Alliwa' |
عميد Amid |
عقيد Aqid |
مقدم Muqaddam |
رائد Ra'id |
نقيب Naqib |
ملازم أول Mulazim awwal |
ملازم Mulazim |
The rank insignia of non-commissioned officers and enlisted personnel.[122]
Rank group | Senior NCOs | Junior NCOs | Enlisted | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Syrian Arab Army[134]
|
No insignia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
مساعد أول Musaeid 'awal |
مساعد ثاني Musaeid thani |
مساعد Musaeid |
رقيب أول Raqib 'awal |
رقيب ثاني Raqib thani |
رقيب Raqib |
عريف Earif |
جندي أول Jundiun 'awal |
جندي Jundiun |
Awards
Although some twenty-five orders and medals are authorized, generally only senior officers and warrant officers wear medal ribbons. The following are some important Syrian awards: