For more information, the “ The Syrian Army: Doctrinal Order of Battle” report by the Institute for the Study of War is an excellent report.Īt the start of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, the SAA had on paper approximately the following number of armored tracked vehicles: A disproportionate number of those bases were established in the Damascus and Daraa governorates, which are situated close to the Golan Heights which have been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War. Due to the fear of an Israeli attack, the SAA’s arsenal was spread over a large number of military bases across Syria’s governorates. It was the latter task that arguably most influenced the aspects of the SAA, and focused heavily on obtaining large numbers of tanks, armored personnel carriers (APCs), and infantry anti-tank weapons (mostly former Soviet RPGs and anti-tank guided missiles). Secondly, the army needed to be able to conduct both offensive and defensive warfare against the State of Israel. Firstly, the SAA needed to provide internal security for the Assad government. To understand the context of the armored tracked vehicle losses in the Syrian Civil War, it is important to briefly discuss the pre-war history of the SAA.įor decades, the SAA had two main tasks. General Information on the SAA’s Armoured Vehicles A T-72 AV Soviet second-generation main battle tank of the Syrian Arab Army near the border with Israel.

Tank battles syria