dan, here are few pics of the lebanese christian forces, they were doing good, until they were dismantled at the end of the civil war, believing that the other part will be dismantled too, but syria played a very bad role by putting the christian leaders in jail or exile, and letting other criminals play.

Wow. Thanks so much for those photos. They are exactly what I’m looking for. I really appreciate them.

the lebanese christians had helicopters , a navy and strong soldiers.

And they ran a pretty nice country, too. Admitedly the most successful and most enjoyable in the Arab world.

To get back on-topic, here are a few pics. Hopefully not already posted too often. May the last one one, the soaring MEA plane, be a symbol of hope.

DAN

Can you think of any Air Forces that have exactly the same markings or roundels?

Paraguay and France both have the same Blue-white-red cockade. (Flag on fin is different)

Peru and Turkey, same as above.

Syria and Egypt, and at times Libya, have had very similar or identical red-white-black roundels.

And now that the fashion is for low-viz insignias just paited in grey or in the camo colors, colors are increasingly bleached out. A lot of air forces have the same black-n-white roundels.

DAN

WOW!! Impressive. This thread actually managed to go 20 whole posts without dragging in the whole Israeli-Palestinian issue. A new record of sorts.

Yeah. Yuck.

Meanwhile back to Israeli UAVs: There have been some press blurbs about India and Israel working on UAVs together. Any info on what is being worked on?

What official is that India bought IAI’s Searcher and Heron systems.
(unofficially, has anyone compared the Nishant and Pioneer/Mastiff designs? There has to be an interesting story somewhere)
Now IAI and Elbit are trying to sell them everything else, ofc. But AFAIK the latest large contract was on AWACS not on UAVs.

I don’t think that’s really the case. Syrian AD assests are kept inside Syria proper, and even if they do make into Lebanon they are usually restricted to the northern part of the country. It’s one of those unsigned understandings between Israel and Syria ever since the 1980s – no Syrian AD assets south of the Beirut – Damascus highway.

No disagreement here. Not in the South.

My point was: Lebanon has no serious autonomous air force or air defense capability, Syria wouldn’t let them, even if their finances did.

Leb is doing fine i think..domestically.. atleast they have a running democracy (unique among Arabs)..

Indeed, they USED TO have a running democracy.
Now I would rather describe it as severely under influence. From Iran, from Syria, etc.

Leb Territory is also occupied by Israel…

Nope. Not since 2000.

its the Syrians who are in trouble..
okay can you plz give me status of SyAF ?

I can’t give anything more than what was already given, in terms of inventory. (I don’t know more).
What I was driving at is: they have a major problem in strategic and geopolitical terms. If ever the US can fix Iraq, about the only option for Syria will be to change sides and join the West, which will pose major challenges internally.

dont Leb. even have ground based AD???

Lebanon has a number of ZU-23-2 twin 23mm AA cannons mounted on M113s. You can imagine the effectiveness.
Prolly also some SA-7 grail.

Now Syria has a lot of AA assets in Lebanon. But that is not quite the same thing.

Maybe my previous post was unclear: AFAICT, Lebanon is a country under Syrian protectorate + Iranian influence, and they are not going to be allowed much in terms of independant defenses. Not that it could afford all that much anyway, but Syria is NOT going to let its single strategic bargaining chip slip away anytime soon.
(OK, they also have another chip in the form of some Pali terror groups, but that chip a- is a lot less strategic, and b- is now, erm, unsightly.)

DAN