Today, a SyAAF MiG-23 operating from Sh'eirat AB and piloted by Col. Thabet Ismail (العقيد ثابت اسماعيل) is reported crashed in Hayyan field in eastern rural of Homs governorate; the pilot ejected and was recovered.Pro-regime media refers the incident to a "Technical Failure" while ISIS are claiming the shot down.
It's good to mention the aircraft in question should be either MLD (23-18) or MLD (23-22) as both variants operate from this airfield.
Yesterday, 4th Sep. 2016, a SyAAF L-39 -I suspect it's ZO but cannot confirm- piloted by Captain Ali Farhan Ghanem "النقيب علي فرحان غانم" has crashed nearby Sadad town (around 50km to the south of Homs city). This brings in mind that the aircraft in question should be operating from Sheirat AB which recently housed number of L-39s at the eastern side of the airfield. Again it's not confirmed whether the jet was downed by means of ground fire or countered a tech. failure caused this incident; the pilot is KIA.
Good job RT! Another report emerges this time from She'irat AB located to the south east of Homs which is one of the most active ABs during the current unrest. Sadly only two types of aircraft appears in this report which are the MiG-23MLD with serial 2771 and the Su-22M-4 with serial 3211. It's known that this AB home also the ex-Belorussian MiG-23MLD, Su-22M-3 and Su-22UM-3.
This afternoon, a SyAAF Su-22M-4 code numbered 949, piloted by Brig. General Khaled Sa'id and operating from She'irat AB, has been crashed near Al-Eis (العيس) town to the south west of Aleppo city; footage from crash site can be seen HERE and HERE.
It was thought the Su-22 in question flying such high was crashed due to a technical failure, but later on the pilot confirmed his plane received "ground fire". The pilot whom is the commander of No. 677 squadron ejected safely and caught POW as can be seen in this VIDEO; and this VIDEOshows the pilot while para-dropping.
On 25th July 2013, a video from Tabqa town was published stating that a 'MiG' was hit by rebels and crashed not very far from Tabqa AFB, the footage confirms the accident as can be seen HERE. Later on and just recently, It is confirmed by pro-regime news that the Colonel Malek Muhammad Abbas ’العقيد الطيار مالك محمد عباس’ was KIA while carrying out an attack sortie over Al-Tabqa area, that date.
Luftwaffe A.S' own sources confirmed he was flying a Su-22M-3 based in Sh'eirat AFB, the Su-22 in question can be seen above.
Again thanks to our Syrian singer Mr. Kaz'our and special thanks to our 'Anonymous' friend for providing this photo shows wider view of the SyAAF MiG-23 which still confirms itself as an MLD variant.
The 'Vortex Generator' is truly not that easy to distinguish here in this shot as it goes perpendicular on the beam of the camera target point, anyway, I line it here above in red to understand its edges. The serial looks to me x400, but I would respect erased24 (from ACIG) point of view it may read 4000. I studied the location as well and came to a conclusion that this MLD is no doubt deployed at Sh'eirat AFB at the eastern tarmac as stipulated below.
The visible landmarks in the newly revealed photo showing the suspected location of the MiG-23MLD (Green dot) in addition to the location and direction of the camera just beside.
Another rear view for the same MLD with our hero whom I wish he could make more shots inside SyAAF airbases ;)
Continuing the survey I started in 2014 for the jet air raids from Hama & Sh'eirat AFBs, I post here the chart of the second quarter of this year which we can read through a considerable stability unlike the first quarter.
13th April recorded 39 sorties in one day, while 26 was the maximum number of air raids conducted in a single day from Sh'eirat on 10th Apr. and 17 in a day from Hama on 17th Jun. which drives us again to conclude that at least there were 13 operational (Su-22M-3/4 / MiG-23BN) and 8 operational (MiG-21bis / MiG-23MF) in Sh'eirat and Hama AFB's respectively (this if we estimated that each aircraft scrambled twice a day).
As from Jan. 2014, these two airbases launched 3328 air raids over the middle and northern governorates in Syria, almost 60% were in the 2nd quarter which means that the SyAAF is still operational and its units are receiving the required regular maintenance and could be even overhauled with help of allies.
Another survey I prepared for the air raids/transport sorties SyAAF is carrying out with its fleet of Helicopters in a trial to estimate the 'remaining' operational units at least in the northern/western areas of clashes, specifically those are starting from Hama (Hama governorate), Sh'eirat (Homs governorate), Abu Ddhour (Idleb governorate) and Hmemim (Lattakia governorate). As stipulated above, we can notice that contrary to expectations, Abu Ddhour AFB is 'very' alive and as active as Hama AFB in terms of number of daily sorties. Hmemim airfield was kinda conservative in number of daily sorties from the beginning of January until the first half of March, while the second half of March till today (as we will see in the updated survey) it becomes one of the main bases for Helicopters to start from. 21st Feb. recorded the maximum number of Helicopters taking off from the four airbases in a single day with a total number of 42 sorties. Of course, we cannot consider all these were attack sorties as helicopters are currently being used for the following: - Bombing (dropping death barrels) - Supplies (para-dropping food for besieged SyA units) - Transportation (units and VIP's) So, if we consider that each helicopter took off twice a day we may reach a conclusion that there are at least 21 operational/air-worthy Mi-8/17/14/25 in these four airbases. Talking about the distribution of each type in these four AFB's -relying on available visual records in each base- it is as below: - Mi-8/17: Hama, Sh'eirat, Abu Ddhour, Hmemim - Mi-14: Hmemim - Mi-25: Hama, Sh'eirat, Hmemim
In a trial to understand the current inventory of aircraft the SyAAF is currently operating, I worked to survey and available records of attack sorties the SyAAF 'Jet' units are performing. Fortunately, I found trustful entries -from a group specialized in observation of air sorties- for Hama AFB (Hama governorate) & Sh'eirat (Homs governorate) AFB, and accordingly prepared a log of the number of air raids started from both. The charts above stipulate the daily air raids from both air bases in the first quarter of this year. We can notice that January witnessed the least sorties due to the bad weather in some days, while in February the more sorties been performed stably from both airports. In March the rate was unstable in terms of continuity of the same number of aircraft started from both airbases especially from Sh'eirat. 22 is the maximum number of air raids conducted in a single day from Sh'eirat on 20th Feb. and 14 in a day from Hama on 15th Mar. which drives us to a conclusion that at least there were 11 operational (Su-22M-3/4 / MiG-23BN) and 7 operational (MiG-21bis / MiG-23MF) in Sh'eirat and Hama AFB's respectively (this if we estimated that each aircraft scrambled twice a day). At last, I would remind that this survey is limited to Jet Fighters/Bombers and there are twice the number of raids carried out by helicopter starting from these both air bases.
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