The US Navy has struck one of the main bases of the Syrian Air Force.
Photo: RIA Novosti / Mikhail Voskresenskiy
The article is based on this post by IMP-Navigator blog
The Ash Sha’irat airbase, located to the southeast of Homs, which was struck by the Tomahawk cruise missiles of the US Navy, is one of the main bases of the Syrian Air Force. The forces of the 50th Air Brigade, in particular the 677th and 685th squadrons on the Su-22M3/M4 fighter bombers and the 675th squadron on the MiG-23ML/MLD fighter jets, were based there.
Taking into account losses for previous years, probably, there could be about one and a half dozen of the combat-ready Su-22s at the airbase at the moment of the missile strike. As for the MiG-23ML/MLD, it seems that the most part of the combat-ready aircraft have been redeployed to Hama in recent years, though, there should still have been several more flightworthy fighter jets of this model on the Ash Sha’irat airbase.
In addition, some part of the Su-22, Su-24 and L-39 aircraft from the T4 airbase was based on the Ash Sha’irat airbase for some time, when terrorists of the Islamic State (IS) group approached it closely. Some of these fighter jets, as well as helicopters of the Russian Aerospace Forces, which also used this base from time to time, still can be seen on satellite images, dated by January and February of this year. But now they should have already returned to the T4, after terrorists were thrown out of the base and Palmira was liberated again.
A number of satellite images of the Ash Sha’irat airbase, dated by January 10 and February 18, 2017:
The Ash Sha’irat airbase (Photo: terraserver.com)
It looks like the MiG-23, while a group in the upper left corner has been in this position for many years and obviously is in a state of incapacity (Photo: terraserver.com)
The Su-22 on the Ash Sha’irat airbase (Photo: terraserver.com)
The Su-22 on the Ash Sha’irat airbase (Photo: terraserver.com)
The L-39 on the Ash Sha’irat airbase (Photo: terraserver.com)
The Su-24 on the Ash Sha’irat airbase (Photo: terraserver.com)
Helicopters on the Ash Sha’irat airbase (Photo: terraserver.com)
Footage from the outskirts of the Ash Sha’irat airbase, where reportedly three Kvadrat air defense systems were deployed. The video allows seeing their launchers.
I guess Iran will build it’s hangars a bit deeper in the coming months. Or put loads of scrap metal on top. Crushed cars are probably a cheap and easy way to reinforce the roofs. They must have thousands of those laying around.
I hope Russia will help to replace the aircraft lost and rebuild parts of the base that were destroyed as soon as possible, for the terrorists will not wait
I wonder what China gets in the South China sea to keep quiet about this. And how much countries like Vietnam and Korea like that. This is sooooooooooooooooooo dumb.
thats a good question
The Chinese actually responded with a scathing condemnation: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/08/world/asia/china-xi-jinping-president-trump-xinhua.html
you can clearly see what been hit http://www.imagesatintl.com/us-strike-syria/