Russian airstrikes are part of the Russian Department of Defense’ budget
Syria is the Russian theatre to graduate and acquire expertise in training and logistical
Elijah J. Magnier @ejmalrai
Original article:
http://www.alraimedia.com/ar/article/special-reports/2015/10/27/630472/nr/kuwait via @alraimediagroup
What happens behind the walls at the military airport used by the Russian air force to hit targets inside Syria in Latakia-Humaimam?
Observers believed Moscow would not be able to maintain the pace required for the airstrikes in Syria because it is expensive and would drain the Russian treasury. In fact, the Russian air force carries annually more than 20.000 training flights to maintain its readiness and to graduate new pilots. When President Vladimir Putin said “the military effort in Syria, mainly the air strikes, falls within the ceiling of the Russian Defense Ministry”, he meant that the Kremlin war Ministry have allocated a basic 10.000 sorties for the first year over Syria only, subject to increase the number of sorties, depending on the necessity of the battle field. A large part of the Russian pilots’ training and graduation were converted to Hamymeem in Syria. A number of 100 sorties and 25 air strikes were allocated to each pilot to be completed before retuning home and being replaced by other fresh pilots.
According to sources from within the Hamymeem airport in connection with the main operation room in Damascus, “a team of Russian experts are working on reviewing the daily strikes carried by the Russian Air Force to study the effectiveness, the precision of the bombs, the skill of pilots, and the destructive power of the bombs used. Another team collects the intelligence date gathered by drones and air jets to identify targets before and after the air strikes, update the bank of objectives, estimate the enemy losses, and the impact of these strikes on the battlefield. One of many conclusions is that Russia needs to develop its aerial photography quality during raids to transfer the image more clearly and to increase the sorties and the strikes due to the wide geographic area of operation.”
“Russia is gaining precious experience in the sky of Syria. It is also developing a coordinated sea and air logistics supply to feed its own air force and provide the allies, who are not only in the air, like the Syrian Air Force, but also fighting battles on the ground who are in regular need of military supply of all kind. The flow of supply is fed by air and sea almost on daily basis from thousands of kilometers in Russia. Moscow’s North Sea Fleet and the Department of Defense coordinate between the Kremlin and Operation rooms in Damascus and Baghdad to follow the development and draw possible future plans, including for Iraq”, said the source.
Russia is expected to introduce in the coming weeks vivid maneuvers during which the use of new weapons is expected in the battlefield. The Russian Air force considers its operation in Syria as a dream for every strong army to participate in a life battle like the one in Syria, or possibly in Iraq. The Russian pilots are happy to serve in Syria because it breaks the training routine they were used too and provides life experience. The Israeli air force had been suffering this routine following the withdrawal from Lebanon in the year 2000. That is due to the absence of a real theater of operations for live exercises used for against real targets and also for graduating pilots. Before its withdrawal from Lebanon, Israel announced a new batch of pilots were graduated after ending their training by bombing a building in Ayn Buswar. A female officer was among the graduating pilots.
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