FILE IMAGE
A total of 48,000 Russian troops took part in the country’s military campaign in Syria, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on December 22. According to the minister, 14,000 Russian service members involved in the operation received state awards.
Shoigu noted the role of the aviation in defeating ISIS:
“80% of crews of the operational-tactical aviaction and 90% of the army aviation have 100-120 combat sotries. Crews of the long-range aviation received a practie of conducting strikes on important terrorist objects. In total, Russia’s Aerospace Forces have carried 34,000 combat sorties over 2 years.”
The minister added that crews of the naval aviation of the Admiral Kuznetsov heavy aircraft-carrying missile cruiser particiapted in the combat operations for the first time. They conducted 420 combat sorties.
The Navy and the strategic aviation used Kalibr cruise missiles and Kh-101 air-launched cruise missiles were used to deliver strikes on the most important terrorist objects. Russian forces also used Tochka-U and Iskander missiles. The air and artilley strikes were coordinated by units of the Russian Special Operations Forces opearing on the ground in Syria. Additionally, Shoigu emphasized the role of the air defense units deployed in Syria.
President Vladimir Putin said that the Russian Armed Forces have been courageously and effectively fighting terrorists.
“I would like to start by expressing gratitude to those military servicemen who took part in the operation against terrorists in Syria. I would like to thank all the Armed Forces personnel. While fighting against international terrorism, which is a global threat, our soldiers and officers showed great courage and high professional skills, proving that the Russian Army’s capability has grown immensely,” Putin said adding would not be an exaggeration to say that the Aerospace Forces “played the leading role in defeating the strongest units of international terrorists.”
Putin added that “in fact, it was not just a terrorist group but a whole terrorist army, well-organized, trained and armed, which directly threatened our country and the entire world.”
The Russian military operation in Syria started on September 30, 2015. Since then, the country’s forces, supported by the Russian Aerospace Forces and the Special Operations Forces, had liberated a large areas from ISIS, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda) and other militants, including the cities of Aleppo, Palmyra, Deir Ezzor, Deir Hafer, al-Bukamal and al-Mayadin.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, 8,000 units of the military equipment, 4,1000 fuel trucks, 718 workshops, 396 oil facilities and 60,318 militants, including 819 commanders, were eliminated.
The Russian operation changed the course of the war and allowed the Damascus government to take an upper hand in the conflict.
Other than other obvious things Russian MOD used this compain as best possible training camp by constant rotation of its forces. It’s known that most lion share of RuAF went through Syria and that’s actual combat experience with high number of flight hours. I really have a feeling that if NATO were to sustain same number of sorties it would need 3 times as much man power, money and weapons/systems.
ABSOLUTELY. Putin, in wargaming terms, sought ‘veteran’ status for as many of his ‘pieces’ as possible. A cynical person might think Putin purposely allowed Syria to get as bad as it did for this purpose. After all, Russia clearly avoided early forceful diplomatic intervention when the Deep State plan to flood Syria with wahhabi terror could easily have been thwarted.
Whatever- the end result is that caught between the West and Russia, the Syrian people suffered in the worst way possible. Their once beautiful peaceful productive land has been ruined. Israel celebrates, Saudi Arabia celebrates, and Putin has recently stated Russia is the strongest friend and ally of both these demonic states.
“After all, Russia clearly avoided early forceful diplomatic intervention when the Deep State plan to flood Syria with wahhabi terror could easily have been thwarted”
LoL, this some BS.
How would that plan be “easily thwarted”? your kind is out of ideas on what to whine about.
It’s like there wasnt a case when Russia negotiated that issue with Assad’s “chemical weapns”. Starlight either think we’re stupid or have short memory.
” the West and Russia, the Syrian people suffered in the worst way possible. ”
I take issue with that statement Starlight. IF ISIS and Al Nusra had succeeded in taking Damascus and defeated the SAA, there would have been a massacre of innocents and religious groups of Biblical proportions. Akin to the carnage in Libya 1000 or more times.
The secular Syrian society has survived and the demonic US and Israeli plans to install a medieval system of warlords has been derailed.There is still much to do but every day the Syrians elected government under the courageous leadership of President Assad and Allies become stronger.
I see your point. So this is Putin to blame for Syrian war? May I ask for a link where “Putin has recently stated Russia is the strongest friend and ally of both these demonic states.” ?
Putin is a master Chess player by being in good terms with all those countries if Russia is to have influence in ME vs US’s child like actions
I suspect the NATO boys and girls would need more that 3x the resources and even then their effectiveness would be questionable. Virtually all the newest combat ships of the UK are being repaired and it is said that there are no current naval operations outside UK waters at the moment :)
“it is said that there are no current naval operations outside UK waters at the moment”
Not so! Current Royal Navy operations outside UK waters include: A Royal Fleet Auxiliary, RFA Cardigan Bay (16,000 tons), and four small minehunter ships in the Gulf as part of the mine countermeasure group. HMS Protector (5,000 ton) ice patrol ship and HMS Clyde (2,000 ton) offshore patrol ship in the Falklands. RFA Mounts Bay (16,000 tons) in the Caribbean, delivering aid to hurricane devastated areas. HMS Enterprise (4,000 tons) in the Mediterranean, a Hydrographic and Oceanographic Survey Vessel.
In addition it is likely that the is one nuclear ballistic submarine and two of the Royal Navy’s eight nuclear powered attack submarines out on patrol somewhere.
You seem to be well informed on this matter ;)
Apart from the sub, they are all de facto Armed Merchant Ships with a Navy Badge.
https://www.rt.com/uk/367629-royal-navy-warships-shortage/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3271299/Former-brass-warn-Royal-Navy-perilous-situation-needs-4-000-extra-sailors-man-aircraft-carriers-nuclear-submarine-fleet.html
” Navy forced to hire foreign troops to fill the ranks as former top brass warn 4,000-sailor shortage puts it in a ‘perilous situation’ ”
Perhaps Chinese sailors could be recruited by the Royal Navy , or would that expose a chink in the UK defence armour ?
“Apart from the sub” !!!!! Even if every single Royal Navy surface combatant was currently at sea many would argue that just those 2 attack subs alone with their Tomahawk cruise missiles, their torpedoes and their sensors would still represent the principal combat strength of the RN afloat.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/766212/Nuclear-warning-royal-navy-submarines-grounded-crack-reactor
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/nuclear-submarine-sailors-fired-cocaine-prostitutes-party-royal-navy-hms-vigilant-a8027106.html
I just hope that the UK MOD is not foolish enough to think that winning a nuclear is possible, especially as the UK is a relatively small island.
I suppose such a war would help solve the housing and immigration problems though :)
What has been unsaid is wow! This is the first time we have heard such official figures. Till now we were told there were only trainers and aircraft personnel there. Now we hear 50 000 troops!
Of course nato media never told us that,probably from shame! I never heard of russian troops being in battle in a big way.
Have you?
of course with the way the article is written someone would make this observation.
It’s the total number, they’ve been rotated in and out the theater
Ok.Thanks.
np
As I said above this is total number of personnel (MOD) that was involved from the start of compaign. We’re not talking 50k actual troops on the ground :)
Thanks Tudor
welcome
Tudor, do you think these 48,000 troops include or exclude air force personnel? The word “troops” in English can sometimes be used to refer to just army troops. I wonder what the original statement in Russian said?
As far as I understand thats a total number of MOD personnel involved in compain (including logistics) at various points in time.
Very true especially the very high sorties conducted for very few planes.
For a while I thought they were like Supermen. Now with high rotation rates to train their pilots , it becomes clearer.
So I guess Russia is prepared in any potential conflict with NATO forces
probably less than a tenth of the total number has been deployed at any single time during the operations. There has been large rotations of personnel and equipment, which is a positive.
“probably less than a tenth of the total number has been deployed at any single time”
I seriously doubt that. The Russian intervention has lasted 27 months (September 2015 was the commencement) This 10% deployed prediction would only be true if each rotation was just 3 months long. Three months is way too short to be practicable. Six, nine, or even twelve month rotations seems much more feasible.
A three month rotation would have resulted in a total of 9 rotations in 27 months. Each rotation would have roughly 5,300 troops which is 11% of 48,000.
This leads me to believe that Russia has 10,000 or even 15,000 troops at any one time in Syria.
you can’t calculate rotations that way, because they involve very different kinds of personnel from several services.
When for example air force personnel is rotated, army one is not.
You also don’t know on which basis every different service is rotated – example, army gets rotated every 3 months, air force every 4.
Performing calculations on the basis of unknown numbers will yield wrong results.
The only number I’ve been able to find is the one at the start of combat operations, and it was around 4500.
There is no reason to believe that the initial number varied sensibly at any point in time.
There is also, for all its worth, an estimate made by the US Army, which put the total number of RU servicemen deployed at one time from 3000 to 6000.
“Performing calculations on the basis of unknown numbers will yield wrong results”
Yes my numbers are just estimates because as you say there are several unknowns. No matter what the differences between army and air force rotations your guess is likely too low because, as I stated, it requires ridiculously short rotations.
“No matter what the differences between army and air force rotations your guess is likely too low because, as I stated, it requires ridiculously short rotations”
My guess is based on the only certain number in the equation, the initial troops committed to the operation, which as said was around 4300.
The total number (48000) provided by the MoD also takes into account all the servicemen that took part in one-time operations (like warships crew), and those performing operations starting from Russian territory, like long-range aviation crews and most certainly all the support personnel for that service.
If you put into account these modifiers, the rotation lengths aren’t “ridiculously short” at all, the averages are lowered enough to make my estimate very reasonable.
Long-range aviation crews will not number more than a thousand if that. Warship crews though could be a much higher number and I hadn’t considered them. This September 2016 article tends to support your numbers:
http://www.newsweek.com/russian-votes-syria-hint-size-military-deployment-501515
Now if we only knew the average length of a deployment for a Russian army soldier in Syria we would have a clearer idea as they would surely form the bulk of the 48,000.
In Afghanistan in the 1980s Russian army conscripts did an 18 month tour. That was a long time ago though……
Looks like you were right – 3 month rotations!
https://twitter.com/MSuchkov_ALM/status/946040112617611266
10. Total of 48,000 Rus soldiers&officers been rotated – most for3 months – in Syr w 90% of divisions,more thanhalf of regiments&brigades having served there over course of 2+ years.
I can’t imagine how a 3 month rotation would work. You would be barely up to speed when it would be time to go home. But there it is in black and white…..
nice : )
by the US army and now you made me laugh
As I have said previously the Rebels are the real deal. They have been taking on Russia full on and head on first.
Without them even knowing this because they only wanted to free themselves of a tyrant. Morally speaking the Russians have no Dog fight in this war.. So why are they investing so much into this is no brainer to me
why do you hate the iranians?
People often hate those that they harm. That’s called guilt.
Oh really? Didn’t know that psychology thing. Thanks for letting mw know. So, basically they wouldn’t hate us if they were murdered us all. Stab our Souls.
They need someone to work for them… so that’s a closed loop :/
The Iranians didn’t lose the war. They helped bring the Russian’s peer air support in to counter the baby rappers and their Jewmerican goy slaves to even up the playing field. And then they proceeded to kick Jew world order terrorist butt. I’m sure that you’re well aware that the baby raper’s terrorists and the Jew world order’s anti terrorist coalition are two sides of the same Hegelian coin.
https://theuglytruth.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/00.jpg?w=1400
To say SAA has not been effective is lame as initially before the Russians stepped in, his tiny forces were taking on the flood of men and equipment supplied by so many countries from US to Arabs plus EU.
No country can stand against such force without a superpower to support with vast Arsenal’s of good air Force
There are doing most of the fighting and winning. I doubt even Israel dare to take them on now.
Of course they will still need their allies
To say they are ineffective is unfair on your part
In fact we should really honour them for having withstood all the massive foreign attacks with such a tiny army. AND WIN!!
Just close your mouth!
Thank god for Russia. The world is a much better and safer place thanks to Russia and China. And India voting for the Jerusalem resolution is very encouraging. Jewmerica and the evil Jew pedophile rape cult need to go away for America and humanity to have a better future.
These numbers don’t take into account Russian private military contractors (PMCs). This all points to the importance of Russian troops and Russian PMCs to the successes achieved by the Syrian Government forces in the last 2 years. Of course Iraqi, Iranian, Afghani and Hezbollah troops have all helped as well.
:
4,1000 fuel trucks destroyed is an obvious misprint but even at 4,100 was an important factor in turning the tide against ISIS and the profiteers stealing and selling Iraqi and Syrian oil which helped fund AQ and ISIS death and destruction. We have all seen the videos in the early part of Russia entering the Syrian coalition to defend its UN status as a nation state, unlike what we saw in Iraq and Libya.
50k lol that is a large number tho.