2013-01-19

Eye-Catching AFB: KSHESH (Syria)


Kshesh AFB (36° 5'49.05"N 37°56'43.31"E), or as known as Al Jarrah, is around 70km to the east of Aleppo, and just few kilometers from the Assad Lake.
This base does not have any significant role during the wars Syria involved in, while it still one of the most important training bases in Syria.
One noticeable accident recorded in the history of this base is when a pilot of an L-39 extremely approached the surface of the Lake's water which in turn was inhaled by the thirsty engine and caused the aircraft loss !!


Talking about the layout of this base, and from my point of view, I would divide it into three parts:

 

The first part and the most attractive part, and the one which made this base a real eye-catching one is the cemetery of more than 60 MiG-15s and MiG-17s of different variants been phased-out and immediately damaged and scrapped.
These units were more than air worthy, all of them were operational, but the arrival of the advanced variants of MiG-21s and deliveries of MiG-23s made the SyAAF HQ take a "wise" decision that these airframes are useless and burden over the SyAAF.
This took place in early 1980s when the MiG-17 was still in service in many air forces in the world and could be used for advanced training or at least as unmanned target drones, it was a massacre to Machines...as well as what is going on nowadays in Syria to Humans.
Anyway, this was not the first time for that HQ to take such decision, as the first victims were the British Meteors those been phased-out from service in Qweres AFB in their full operational status, few of them did not completed 10 hours of fly time !!!


The second part, is where around 12 L-29s "Delfin" are phased-out.


The third part is the two active yards which these days host L-39s.


Recently, and during the Syrian uprising, few videos came out to public for this air base when rebels got to seize this base for few weeks.
The most important one is this dated 16 Jan. 2013, which describes in details the base from west to east.


Here, I extracted continues stills from this video to form a panoramic view of Kshesh AFB.
Note that there are Three L-39s in the southern yard, while one can be seen inside a HAS.
You can download it HERE in its full resolution.



Another video dated 27 Dec. 2012, shows an L-39 inside a HAS, these two HAS's are those located to the west of the northern yard, almost in the heart of the airfield.


Another video dated as above, shows the same HAS's from another corner.


A video dated 15 Jan. 2013, shows the double HAS in the far east of the field with two L-39s inside.


Again a video dated 27 Dec. 2012 explains the siege rebels conduct all around the base.

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