Syria looks to upgrade its air force with Russian planes

This is a continuation of a story, reported earlier on The Duran.

One of the worst tragedies of war comes when one side’s weaponry and skill is totally outmatched by the opposing forces.  It is possible that the downing today of a trainer aircraft, possibly modified to use as an attack aircraft, led to such a tragedy for the Syrian government forces.

On Tuesday, an L-39 “Albatros”, a small, Czech made aircraft, was shot down by militant forces, possible the Free Idlib Army, operating in the northern Hama province.

The pilot, identified now as Basin Hasan of Homs, survived being shot down, but was killed brutally, possibly by Tahrir al-Sham (formerly al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda affiliated group) forces also operating in that area.

This event is something Syria and its ally Russia are trying to prevent, with the procurement and addition of modernized forces.

In September 2017, the Syrian government forces received twenty Russian-made MiG 29SMT “Fulcrum” multi-role attack aircraft.  These are highly advanced and extremely deadly aircraft.

Although these fighters are deployed to Syria, it is unclear at this time if the deployed fighters were purchased by Syria, or if they are simply deployed there to augment that country’s air capabilities.  However, 12 more such aircraft are said to be on order at this time.

The Syrian conflict has proven useful as a “testbed” for the effectiveness of Russian military hardware.  These planes are no exception. While the L-39 certainly is a valuable platform in the style of medium to low altitude air-to-ground operations the air forces of that country employ, there is no comparison to the power the MiG 29 is able to project.

As the Syrian government forces continue to advance and solidify their gains in the civil war, we can probably expect both further increases in military strength and its deployment.