Syrian Army

Syrian Arab Army الجيش العربي السوري
A Syrian soldier aims a 7.62mm PKM light machine gun from his position in a foxhole during a firepower demonstration, part of Operation Desert Shield. The soldier is wearing a nuclear-biological-chemical warfare mask.
Founded	August 10, 1946
Headquarters	Damascus
Leadership
President of Syria	Bashar al-Assad
Minister of Defence	Lt. Gen. Dawoud Rajiha
Chief of Army Staff	Gen. Fahd Jasem Al-Farij
Manpower
Military age	18
Conscription	Mandatory for all males (2010 numbers pre-Syrian uprising)
Active personnel	220,000 (currently unknown)
Reserve personnel	280,000 (currently unknown) Does not include ongoing defections
Expenditures
Budget	$1.8 billion (FY11)
Percent of GDP	3.5% (FY11)
Industry
Foreign suppliers	Russia Belarus Iran China North Korea

The Syrian Army, officially called the Syrian Arab Army, is the land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. It is the dominant military service of the four uniformed services, controlling the senior most posts in the armed forces, and has the greatest manpower, approximately 80 percent of the combined services.

The Syrian army was formed by the French after World War I, after the French obtained a mandate over the region. In 1919 the French formed the Troupes Spéciales du Levant with 8,000 men, which later grew into both the Syrian and Lebanese armies. This force was used primarily as an auxiliary in support of French troops, and senior officer posts were held by Frenchmen, although Syrians were allowed to hold commissions below the rank of major. During the Syrian uprising it oppressed the Syrian people, and while doing so committed crimes against humanity.

History

As Syria gained independence in 1946, its leaders envisioned a division-sized army. The 1st Brigade was ready by the time of Syrian war against Israel on May 15, 1948. It consisted of two infantry battalions and one armoured battalion. The 2nd Brigade was organized during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and also included two infantry battalions and one armoured battalion.

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.

Between 1948 and 1967, 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 Husni az-Za'im, installed himself as president. Two more military dictators followed by December 1949. Further coups followed, each attended by a purge of the officer corps to remove supporters of the losers from the force. 'Discipline in the army broke down across the board as units and their commanders pledged their allegiance to different groups and parties. Indeed, by the late 1950s, the situation had become so bad that Syrian officers regularly disobeyed the orders of superiors who belonged to different ethnic or political groups' writes Pollack.

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. The army had sixteen brigades: twelve infantry, two armoured, and two mechanised. The Syrian government deployed twelve of the sixteen brigades to the Golan, including both armoured brigades and one mechanised brigade. Three 'brigade groups', each comprising four brigades, were deployed: the 12th in the north, holding the sector from the B'nat Ya'acov bridge to the slopes of Mount Hermon, the 35th in the south from the B'nat Ya'acov bridge to the Yarmuk River border with Jordan, and the 42nd in reserve, earmarked for a theatre-level counterattack role.

During the Six Day War Israeli assault of the Golan heights, the Syrian army failed to counterattack the Israelis as the Israelis breached the Syrian positions. While Syrian units fought hard whenever the Israelis entered their fields of fire, no attempts appear to have been made to exploit Israeli disorientation and confusion during the initial assault.

On 18 September 1970 the Syrian government became involved in Black September when it sent a reinforced armoured brigade into Jordan to aid the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. Syrian armoured units crossed the border and overran Irbid with the help of local Palestinean forces. They encountered several Jordanian Army detachments, but rebuffed them without major difficulty. Two days later, the 5th Infantry Division, heavily reinforced, was also sent into Jordan. Two armoured brigades were attached to the division, bringing its' tank strength up to over 300 T-55s and its manpower to over 16,000. The division entered Jordan at ar-Ramtha, destroyed a company of Jordanian Centurion tanks there, and continued directly towards Amman. 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.

Syrian anti-tank teams deployed French-made MILAN ATGMs during the war in Lebanon in 1982.

After 1970 further Syrian engagements included:

• Yom Kippur War (against Israel)
• Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990), (against Lebanese militias, the PLO and Israel)
• 1982 Lebanon War (against Israel)
• Persian Gulf War (against Iraq)
• 2011-2012 Syrian uprising

The Syrian armed forces have also been involved in keeping the order in Syria, for example by fighting a Muslim Brotherhood insurrection in the 1980s and attempting to put down a popular uprising in 2011 and 2012. However, the use of the army in an attempt to repress the current uprising has often been counterproductive; around 10,000 soldiers, including high ranking officers, had defected or deserted as they were unhappy with orders to attack civilians. But according to Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights , they are less than 1000 soldiers that have deserted the army , he claim that the thousands defected soldiers announced are a 'false hope' * Some defectors have actually formed the Free Syrian Army as the armed wing of the uprising and engage in combat with security forces and soldiers around Syria.

• (Syriahr.org reference needs to be verified. The web site security was compromised and some disinformation was distributed under the name Rami Abdul Rahman. Rami Abdul Rahman was a staff alias and no such person actually existed.)

Current structure and organization

A military policeman

A Syrian soldier aims a Type-56 assault rifle (note the closed frontal sights) from his position in a foxhole during Operation Desert Shield.

Main article: Field Units of the Syrian Arab Army

In 2010 army regulars were estimated at 220,000, with an additional 300,000 in reserve. The army had eleven divisional units. The major development in force organization was the establishment of an additional divisional framework based on the special forces and the re-organization of active ground formations into three all arms army corps.

• Three All Arms Army Corps HQ:
  • Eight Armoured Divisions (each with three armoured, one mechanized and one artillery brigade)
  • The Republican Guard Armoured Division
  • Three Mechanized Divisions (each with one armoured, three mechanized and one artillery brigade)
  • One as-Saiqa Divisional Command with 4 Airborne Special Forces Regiments
  • Four independent Infantry Brigades
  • Ten independent Airborne Special Forces Regiments
  • Two independent Artillery Brigades
  • Two independent Anti-tank Brigades
  • Three SSM Brigades (each with three SSM battalions).
  • Three Coastal Defence Missile Brigades (Syria received C-802 systems and missiles from Iran.)
  • One Border Guard Brigade

Army Reserves

Army reserves total 300,000 soldiers, and will form the following units:

• One Armoured Division (Aleppo)
• Two Motorized Division (The two Motorized Division will be formed from the best of the following):
  • Two armoured Brigades
  • Two independent armoured Regiments
  • Thirty Infantry Brigades
  • Three Artillery Brigades

Reservists training are reasonable, but the equipment is old, of poor quality and limited in quantity.

Equipment

Main article: Modern equipment and uniform of the Syrian Arab Army

• 10,885 Armoured Fighting Vehicles:
  • 4,950 Main battle tanks (including 1,150 in storage)
  • 1,125 Amphibious Armoured Scout Cars
  • 2,950 Infantry fighting vehicles
  • 1,860 Armoured personnel carriers
• 4,815+ Towed Artillery Pieces:
  • 1,010+ Mortars
  • 2,130+ Gun/Howitzers (400 in storage)
  • 1,675+ Anti-aircraft guns (300+ in storage)
• 1,136 Self Propelled Artillery Pieces:
  • 485 Self-propelled howitzers
  • 650 Self-propelled anti-aircraft guns (240 in storage)
• 6,890+ Anti Tank Guided Weapon Launchers (4,290 in storage)
• 500+ Multiple Launch Rocket Systems
• 102+ Surface to Surface/Ship Missile Launchers:
  • 86+ Tactical ballistic missile launchers
  • 16+ Anti-ship missile launchers
• 4,235+ Surface to Air Missile Launchers:
  • 4,000+ MANPADS
  • 235 Self-propelled air-defence systems

External links

• - Army Equipment

Further reading

• Kenneth M. Pollack, Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness 1948-91, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 2002, and Pollack's book reviewed in International Security, Vol. 28, No.2.
• History of the Syrian Arab Army: prussianization of the Arab Army, the Arab Revolt of 1916-1918, and the cult of nationalization of Arabs in the Levant after World War I, Infantry Magazine, Nov-Dec 2005.