Syria Operation Demonstrates Russia’s Military Might
The active phase of Russia’s military campaign in Syria is over. Russian President Vladimir Putin told his visiting Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, on Nov.21 that the operation against terrorists in Syria is coming to an end, with the focus shifting to a political process. The Russian president ordered a partial withdrawal of Russian forces from Syria during a visit to the war-torn country on Dec.11. Now the time has come for diplomats, not guns, to talk.
Russia’s victory in Syria is one of the main events of this century and, probably, the only example of successful military operation achieved in a short period of time with positive results, paving the way for negotiation process.
When the operation was launched in September 2015, President Bashar Assad was on the verge of collapse, his forces losing on all fronts. It was predicted that Russia would slide into a protracted conflict, which would be sapping its resources while producing no results. Many believed that Russia’s military was incapable of sustaining a long-term deployment far from Russia’s shores.
Those predictions were wrong. The operation is a success story. Syria has not turned out to be a quagmire for Russia, no rerun Afghanistan. Doomsayers have been proven to be wrong.
The Syrian government has become stronger and is firmly in power, the Islamic State is routed and the remnants of jihadist rebel forces control only a part of the Idlib province being reduced to insignificance.
The victory was achieved with very limited forces employed. No significant deployments of Russian troops have taken place. The casualties are minimal – 41 men in two years. The Aerospace Forces group was estimated at 30-50 combat aircraft and 16-40 helicopters on average. The operational tempo was very high during the active phase – up to 100 sorties delivering around 250 strikes. As of late September, the Airspace Forces had flown 30,650 combat sorties in Syria delivering around 92,000 strikes against 96,800 terrorist targets. 53,700 terrorists had been eliminated. All in all, Russia has lost three airplanes. One was hit by a Turkish plane and two aircraft carrier-based airplanes –Su-33 and MiG-29K – were lost as a result of accidents, not enemy fire. Russian drones have flown about 15,000 sorties.
Special forces teams have been active ever since the start of the Russian operation in Syria. They not only call in air and cruise missile strikes but also take part directly in armed clashes with terrorists.
The Russian forces have been well-supplied by cargo planes landing daily and ships arriving at the Mediterranean ports of Tartus and Latakia.
As a result, terrorist formations have been cut off from supply routes. And financial flows as illegal oil shipments had been stopped…..more here