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.
