Oh and retarded me forgot about Falklands for aircombat, though that was not a good war for Mirage III/Dagger. But then opponent was RN Sea Harrier, not MiG-23.

I am not sure why Syrian AF will disappear. Arabs will keep sending insurgents and Russia will keep maintaining it in air. Country is still not in choas. Coastal areas are protected as is the capital. Not all countries have same importance.

Because it costs a lot of money and human effort to maintain an airforce – fuel, spares, ordanance, training etc etc.

There’s also things such as training of pilots/aircrew (and several training bases have been overrun), disruption of normal schools (remember you need education to make people suitable for high tech airforce jobs).

Reports are stating that sortie rates are already in decline due to lack of fuel and aircraft being worn out through sustained combat and high level of losses. Furthemore large number of pilots are not flying due to suspicions about their political loyalty.

As stated several air bases have been overrun, especially in North of country. This includes training, helicopter and at least 1 fighter base as well as 2 air defence bases (in one case entire AD batallion defected to rebels but missiles seem inoperative).

If the war continues at current tempo for a prolonged period of time, the air force will run out of resources. It happened in Somalia and Afghanistan post-1991.

n most “civil” wars, you will find that at least one side is greatly influenced by foreign influence.

Of course. My point was to Goldust’s bizarre assertion that apparently foreign fighters don’t count for casualties and that Civil Wars don’t have foreign influence.

Only Ar Raqqah city is out of control of the Syrian government, and that is a small provincial capital. Every Muslim country is involved in the Syria conflict. It is not a civil war.

And just about every country was involved in Spanish Civil War – you even had regular German and Italian units fighting there.

Still it was a civil war because main protagonists were opposing sides from same country.

Damage to Syrian economy during this “LIC:

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/business/2013/03/15/The-cost-of-war-Syria-s-economy-pays-a-painful-price.html

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/business/2013/02/economic-impact-syrian-crisis.html

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/10/09/syria-civil-war-leaves-its-cities-economy-and-cultural-heritage-in-shambles/

Don’t worry – after Syrian government arrests the few “terrorists” currently creating shenanigans, they’ll be buying Su-35s and J-20s in their hundreds! 😉

This is an estimate only, and includes deaths of foreign fighters. It is not the scale of a civil war. The scale is too small to be called a war. It is a low intensity conflict.

Definition of LIC from Wikipedia:

Low intensity conflict (LIC) is the use of military forces applied selectively and with restraint to enforce compliance with the policies or objectives of the political body controlling the military force. The term can be used to describe conflicts where at least one or both of the opposing parties operate along such lines.

In Syria we certainly don’t have “selective application of military force.”

It also mentions:

1. Restricted usage of weapons including artillery in built up areas and offensive airpower – definitely not the case in Syria.

2.”If the conflict progresses, possibly into armed clashes, the role develops with the addition of the identification and removal of the armed groups – but again, at a low level, in communities rather than throughout entire cities. This is roughly the definition of terrorism.”

Revels are there laying siege to bases and in some cases overrunning them in fierce battles.

Definition of civil war:

A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic,[1] or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly united nation state.[2] The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.[1] The term is a calque of the Latin bellum civile which was used to refer to the various civil wars of the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC.

A civil war is a high-intensity conflict, often involving regular armed forces, that is sustained, organized and large-scale. Civil wars may result in large numbers of casualties and the consumption of significant resources.[3]

– Well we have organised groups (Al Nusra, Syrian Army, Free Syrian Army)
– We have usage of regular forces including unrestrained usage of heavy weapons and airpower.
– We have primary goal of both parties to occupy territory (notice LIC is more about terrorism).

As for death of foreign fighters, you do realise lots of foreign fighters fought in Spanish Civil War? Do their deaths in combat not count?!?

How absurd.

92,000- 100,000 dead in a very short period of time. This is full scale war with both sides throwing all gloves off.

You don’t get this kind of carnage in LIC (and I was in Croatia in 1991 in a city under siege and constant artillery barrage (Zadar) and it never looked as an eighth as bad as this – in fact only Croatian town to go through such massive carnage was Vukovar which was destroyed and which was also in your definition Low Intensity Conflict :confused:):

OP specified “to enter service” which sadly neither CF-105 or TSR-2 did.