Sunday, December 8, 2024, the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria fell. This means, there's a vast cache of weapons and military equipment that once belonged to government troops that can find new owners soon. Among these stockpiles are quite a few interesting items that would be of particular interest to many, especially the West in the context of ongoing wars in Ukraine and Israel, as many of the samples were supplied to Assad forces either from russia or iran.
For example, Syrian pro-Assad forces even operated russian Bastion coastal defense systems with P-800 Oniks supersonic anti-ship missiles. Besides Syria which got the system around 2013, the only other country russia ever supplied its Bastion was Vietnam.
Read more: russia Leaves Syria: Ships and Weapons Evacuated from Tartus and Hmeymim
As expected, there's no credible data as to how many Bastions the Syrians have, so any vehicle is priced in gold, as it offers the key to studying one of russia's valuable naval warfare systems. Obtaining one for research could help reveal its vulnerabilities, which could be used not only for developing countermeasures in the sea but also to find new ways to thwart russian long-range attacks with P-800 Oniks missiles from Crimea onto Ukraine's mainland.
In addition to anti-ship missiles, Bashar Assad regime forces had at their disposal an unspecified number of Tochka-U, Elbrus and iranian Fateh-110 missiles, according to IISS's global defense assessment, The Military Balance 2024.
Similarly, ballistic missiles that iran had supplied to Syria are a valuable study material to refine interception tactics and to discover any imported Western electronic components and cut their flow into the sanctioned countries. Also, while Elbrus might be a bit complicated to use as an operational weapon, the Tochka systems, on the other hand, could be handed over to the Ukrainian Armed Forces who are well familiar with this Soviet-era equipment.
The same goes for Syria's ground-based air defenses: The Military Balance mentions at least 20 S-300PMU2 fire units, up to 36 S-125-2M Pechora-2M launchers, and an unspecified number of S-200, Buk, and Buk-M2 missile systems — all would be useful to shield Ukrainian cities from russian long-range attacks.
Next on to the Syrian artillery fleet, we should highlight the reports of Uragan (220mm) and Smerch (300mm) multiple launch rocket systems, the ammunition for which is in short supply on the world market.
As for aviation, at the beginning of 2024, Syria had a total of 184 military aircraft, the most interesting among them are 30 MiG-29 fighters. Some of those have been upgraded to the MiG-29SM modification (enabling them to use R-77 air-to-air missiles, Kh-31P and Kh-29 air-to-surface missiles, and guided aerial bombs). Another notable asset is ten Su-24MK bombers remaining out of the twenty or so units received in the late 1980s.
On top of that, Syria had four Ka-28 and five Mi-14 anti-submarine warfare helicopters, although they are most likely completely out of order. Despite this, they could be used as donors of spare parts for repairs and maintenance.
Regardless of the condition of equipment, a whole different issue is which of these goods can realistically be salvaged from Syria one way or another. To start with, the question is who in Syria should be the one(s) to negotiate the potential transfer of these weapons with? Also, how much time will these talks take — since the Israeli Air Force has already begun to methodically strike down military bases on the territory of Syria in order to destroy all the more or less significant stockpiles of weapons Bashar Assad's regime had.
Israeli airstrikes on the Mezzeh airbase near Damascus destroyed Buk-M1 air defense systems of Assad regime. It appears Israel aims to prevent these systems from falling into the hands of Syrian revolutionary forces.New Syrian authorities will find more of them. pic.twitter.com/EJ10JqFSpi— Clash Report (@clashreport) December 8, 2024
Read more: If We Are to Request Abandoned russian Trophies in Syria, It Should Be the Rare Podlet-K1 Radar for the S-400
