Photos from SyAAF ABU DhHOUR AFB

On 9th Sep. 2015, Jaish Al-Fateh "جيش الفتح" led by Jabhat Al-Nusra "جبهة النصرة" overran Abu DhHour airbase and took control of the whole airfield. I'm not going to talk here about the operation in details as this was the fruit of more than two years of besieging the airbase with uncountable trials to penetrate the defensive lines to take over this base which a lot of towns around suffered from.
It's just important to mention the sand storm which rebels prefer to call "Gift from Heaven" which provided a cover from the SyAAF aircraft used to bombard the advanced rebels upon calls from the airbase itself.

The aircraft left in the airfield are just scraps and useless, most of them are the first generation of MiG-23MS which were delivered to SyAAF on 1974 just after the 73 war. The other MiG-21s are non airworthy anymore as the regime -and especially after downing two MiG-21bis sometime in 2012- worked to flee whatever operational out to Hama AFB.

I collected a lot of photos -with special thanks to all those allowed me to use their photos here in my blog- and watched hours of videos and came to prepare the below key-maps for the eastern and western sides of the airfield in order to understand the type/variant and location of each seen aircraft, I recommend to download them here with full resolution:
- KEY-MAP (EAST)
- KEY-MAP (WEST)

As can be seen, the aircraft inventory in this air force base is as below:

MiG-21 (5 in total):
- MF 1518
- MF 1942
- bis (unknown serial)
- UM 2369
- F-13 (unknown serial at the gate guard)

MiG-23 (17 in total)
- MS 1602
- MS 1605 (first SyAAF aircraft to be hit by ATGM at the beginning of the unrest)
- MS 1612
- MS 1619
- MS 1620
- MS (unknown serial 8 nos.)
- MF 2677
- UB 1750
- UB 1752
- UB 1795

Mi-8 (3 in total)
- T 1282
- T 2904 (knocked out when shelling the airfield by mortars)
- T (unknown serial, hit by ATGM on 8th Sep. 2014)

I will update this list in case more photos come to public: last updated 13th Sep. 2015

SyAAF 1282 (82) Mi-8, notice the rail fitted from inside the cabin back to the bottom of boom, this is for laying anti-tanks land mines

Knocked out SyAAF 2904 Mi-8 apparently by mortar hit when the rebels shelled the airfield

SyAAF MiG-21bis decommissioned inside a HAS (serial could be 2319)

SyAAF 1518 MiG-21MF

SyAAF 1942 MiG-21MF

SyAAF 2369 MiG-21UM inside one of the double HAS

There is large bone yard of MiG-23s at the western side of the airfield distributed on two groups

The western group of phased out MiG-23s is to the far west of the airfield include MS & UB Floggers

The second group is to the east of the first one and consists of MS Floggers only

The most recent aircraft phased out in this airfield is the on on the right of the photo which is the 1750 MiG-23UB

Inside a HAS the single MiG-23MF with serial 2677 decommissioned

R-60 and R-23/24 missiles are thrown beside this Flogger, they are not bombs finally and 'useless' for SyAAF in this civil war!

I tried a lot trying to read the serial of this MiG-23MS but did not come to an accurate conclusion, I just think it can read 1600

One of the most interesting photos here is for the 1620 MiG-23MS with its Sapphir PR-21 radar exposed

The 1750 MiG-23UB

Stunning bird's eye shot for the first group of phased out Floggers, the closest one is the 1620 MiG-23MS while the one next to it is the 1752 MiG-23UB

R-60 Air-to-Air missiles inside the HAS houses the 2677 MiG-23MF

R-23/24 Air-to-Air missiles also

SyAAF From The Archive - Part V

Some awesome photos of the SyAAF I got my hands on again! It's true that the resolution is very low, but I cannot prevent myself posting and sharing them with you here. This time is for the ever greatest MiG-21 in service with SyAAF been videoed in mid 1970s (after Teshreen war).
Above is a formation of six SyAAF MiG-21's.

A formation of three MiG-21MF's. 

At least three MiG-21MF's taking off simultaneously. 

MiG-21's in flight..

SyAAF MiG-21F-13 taking off.

MiG-21MF's...

Colors are back here...a pair of MiG-21MF taking off.

Very low pass performed by a SyAAF MiG-21MF.

SyAAF from the archive: SQUADRON OF HEROES

Dear readers, I'm sorry for this long delay in posting here due to my travel to some country where most of Google products are banned, one of them is the Blogger of course.
I come back to you with very nice stuff, realy rare and published for the first time !!
One of our friends has found this YouTube which originally is a movie titled "سرب الأبطال" "Squadron of Heroes" starred by Khaled Taja (RIP) representing the SyAAF heroism after the war of 1973.
Some stills I could extract from that movie for SyAAF MiGs, and specifically the MiG-21MF and the rarest MiG-21F-13 !!
The above is for a MiG-21MF in its original camo with serial 1554 landing.

Another MF fitted with four AA-2 missiles.

Pair of MiG-21MF's, each is fitted with two AA-2 missiles.

An MF in a HAS...

Technicians mounting one after another AA-2 missiles on an MF.

From the HAS...

Pair of MiG-21MF's on tarmac, the serial of the nearest reads 1508.

Assisting an injured pilot to step down of his fighter (MF), with serial 1551.

The same, note the ex-SyAAF flag on the tail fin (the current flag of Egypt).

Khaled Taja (RIP) in the cabin of an MF.

MiG-21MF with serial 1558 landing.

  
From another corner...

The rarest MiG-21F-13 !! also fitted with two AA-2 missiles.

MiG-21F-13 taxiing after landing.

Pair of F-13s ready to take off, unfortunately not a single serial of them is readable...

Mi-8 with serial 67, fitted with unguided rocket pods.

Special thanks to ED.

Air Force Museum - Dimashq / SYRIA (Updated)

Batch of good photos I collected from web, different than what I posted almost one year ago for aircraft were in display in Military Museum in Damascus.
Starting with a photo for the MiG-21F-13...

The same from another corner, it is important to mention here that this aircraft has received a completely new camo in place here (repainted), the original one with original serial was shown in the previous post of this Military Museum

This photo also shows the same MiG-21F-13 with another third camo !!

The MiG-15UTI did not survive from the amateur painter !!

From the back...

This is the canopy of the Su-7.

Repainted L-29, with the logo of Aviation Faculty.

Another shot for the trainer L-29, as I mentioned previously, all these airframes including the propellers were shifted to an unknown destination !!