Screen grab from Zvezda TV footage.
On June 7, the Ministry of Defense of Russia released footage of a recent joint exercise with the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) on the Syrian coast.
During the exercise, Russian and Syrian service members repelled a simulated attack from the sea. Light and heavy machine guns were used. A Russian BTR-82A armored personnel carrier also took part in the exercise.
Russian military personnel trained their counterparts in the SAA on combat tactics based on the experience gained from the war in Syria.
The exercise was held at a newly-built training field on the al-Shukifat beach in Lattakia. Russian and Syrian troops train in the field on a daily basis. The SAA used to detonate unexploded war ordnance there.
The Syrian coast hosts Russia’s two main military installations in the country, Hmeimim Air Base and Tartus Naval Base.
Joint exercises are essential to improve coordination between Russian and Syrian troops which are operating side by side almost on every frontline in the country.
It’s been said before: train hard, fight easy.
As seen in Idlib and central Syria
Just seeing how the SAA continues to fight with what they have is amazing by all counts. All that old Soviet bloc era equipment, and they keep it running. Quite a stark contrast to the Russian troops with the modern combat gear. I bet when Russian troops arrived, they were quite surprised at the antiquated equipment that Syria has. It is great to see the Russians training new Syrian army recruits. Syria will never rest until every inch of her sovereignty is restored.
What you don’t seem to understand about Russian military hardware is, it’s almost infinitely upgradable, and everything Syria has is, upgraded with the latest technology available. That’s how an S-200 got a hit on an IAF F-35. Had shot down an F-16 prior to that. The hardware may by old, but it’s far from antiquated. When the Russians got there, they upgraded everything. MiG-21 still gets limited upgrades, now these ARE ancient, Vietnam era there’s a lot of countries still flying these planes. Syria, Iran, India has a bunch, but they’re too heavy, and the radars aren’t upgraded, except in a handful that India upgraded itself. There were a few T-34 still in service in 2016, the gun had to be fired from outside as the breach seals are shot, and no replacements. Or, we could talk about the latest US military hardware, and how pitiful it performs. The cost for this junk is insane, none of the newest equipment works, if/when it does, it doesn’t work right. F-35 is the epitome of “The Sunk Cost Fallacy.” F-22 is no better, US has gone back to F-15, even F-16 has some major issues. They can’t sustain supersonic speeds, over 1.6 Mach, or the engine disintegrates, problems with the canopy as well. All Russia’s strategic bombers are USSR era, two of the three are supersonic, 2.3 Mach, MiG-29 have received major upgrades, are 4++ gen. MiG-31 still the fastest fighter ever. 2.8 Mach. Neighboring countries military have clocked MiG-31 on radar in excess of 3.0 Mach. The West has nothing like these, and they’re old. Antiquated, take a good look at US military technology.
YES – “That’s how an S-200 got a hit on an IAF F-35. Had shot down an F-16 prior to that.” …. they blamed it on a flock of birds, but somewhere we found an article (on here) that said – it had been damaged beyond repair – ?..
Syria still have some bastion Anti-Ships System ??