Syrian and Iranian AF 2003

"robert arndt" wrote in message
om...

AF: 40 F-4D/E
6 RF-4E
20 F-14A
40 MiG-29
30 SU-24MK
44 SU-20/22
45 F-5E/F
18 F-7
18 F-6
19 MIRAGE F1

This list is actually rather misinforming than helpfull. For example: Iran
has no 40 MiG-29s, the number is lower, and I would certainly not put them
on the first place of that list. But, Iran has at least 9 RF-4Es, and quite
a few more F-4D/Es; all the Su-20/22s acquired from Iraq are out of service
already since years (actually, they were never in service: few examples were
test-flown, the wrecks of the others can now be seen two times a year on
different shows in Tehran); F-7s were given to Sudan and Tanzania, and all
the "IRGCAF: Take 1" F-6s are "stored" on some junkyard near Tehran already
since 20 years....

Syria:

14 SU-27

There are no Su-27s in Syria: the Russians flew four of them to Syria for
display purposes on two occassions in 2001. Due to the aircraft wearing full
SyAAF markings while in Syria, the people who saw them understood they would
be already in service. See AirForcesMonthly magazine, volume July 2003,
p.18.

60 MiG-29/UB

Given that the Syrians have got only 36 MiG-29s in 1988 and 1989, that two
of these were shot down by the Israelis in 1989, and two in 2001, and that
two are known to have been lost to other reasons, as well as that they have
purchased 16 examples in 2001, I doubt that there could be 60 of them in
Syria...

20 SU-24MK

Given that the Syrians have lost one in a training accidents, but have got
at least three replacements from Libya, I doubt this figure is truth either.

96 SU-20/22/BKL

There is nothing like "SU-20/22/BKL"; there was, once before, the Su-7BKL in
the USSR, but this version was never exported (Su-7B and Su-7BMKs were
exported). Most of the surviving SyAAF Su-20s and Su-22s are
inoperational(this is what causes some sources to claim that the "SyAAF is
short of collapse")....

Tom Cooper
Co-Author:
Iran-Iraq War in the Air, 1980-1988:
http://www.acig.org/pg1/content.php
and,
Iranian F-4 Phantom II Units in Combat:
http://www.osprey-publishing.co.uk/t...hp/title=S6585