Claimed Syrian aircraft losses

Whilst people get all excited about limited Armee de’l Air action over Mali, the Syrian air force appears to be getting as good as it’s giving.

Here’s some links showing claimed Syrian Aircraft losses – mostly unconfirmed but possible due to capture of operational SA-7s and other AA artillery.

http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/CONFLICTS/SYRIA_2011_2012/Syrian_Conflict.htm

http://francona.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/syrian-air-force-losses-in-2012.html

http://francona.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/syrian-air-force-losses-as-of-15.html

I’ve also seen footage of a couple of helicopter bases that the rebels have captured. However not many of the Hips shown looked even close to operational and in some instances had clear damage like ripped off tails

Following overview deals with some details regarding combat ops.

Of note is that MiG-25/ MiG-29 or SA342 Gazelle are not being used in any operations.

http://www.slideshare.net/ISWPress/syrian-air-force-air-defense-overview

From footage we’ve seen Syrian jets have been flying relatively low altitude combat missions which makes them susceptible to rebel AA and SA-7s.

The Hips they’ve been using for ground attack sorties are slow and extremely vulnerable to AA.