Air bases
Control status
Regime
active
Regime
inactive
In dispute
Rebel
controlled
Syria has a large air force with air defense and ground attack capabilities. CSIS has estimated that it had 365 to 385 combat aircraft at the start of the civil war, of which around 50 percent are still in service.
Squadrons
Air defense
Ground attack
Ground attack squadrons provide Assad with a key advantage over the rebels while air defense plans could be targeted to make future U.S. air interdictions less risky.
Click an air base to see squadrons on the map.
Three squadrons in unknown locations are not shown.
Air defenses
The regime has extensive air defenses, including more than 4,000 surface-to-air missiles and 2,000 anti aircraft guns, principally focused around the eastern Mediterranean area. However, much of it relies on aging Soviet-era technology, which poses a limited threat to modern Western combat aircraft. RAND Corporation analysts have described Syrian air defense operators as “strikingly incompetent.” Russia has reportedly agreed to supply modern, long-range S-300 missile systems, which could destroy aircraft deep into Israeli airspace, but they have not yet been delivered.
Coastal defenses
(Not shown)
Two Russian-made Bastion mobile missile defense systems were delivered to Syria in 2011 along with 72 Yakhont anti-ship cruise missiles, which have a range of 186 miles. In July, Israel launched a missile strike on a weapons depot near Latakia, destroying many of the missiles. However, analysts believe some had already been taken elsewhere.
Ballistic missiles
(Not shown)
Syria has several hundred truck-based ballistic missile launchers including an unknown number of SCUD-Ds, which they have reportedly tested up to a 360-mile range. The regime is also equipped with 2,600 anti-tank missiles, 2,000 towed Soviet-manufactured howitzers and 400 mortars.
Chemical weapons
Assad has had a sarin stockpile for several years and is believed to have received outside assistance, possibly from Russia or North Korea, in developing other nerve agents. Reports have listed four suspected production sites — north of Damascus, in Hama, and near Homs and Cerin — and there are a variety of ways in which chemical weapons can be deployed including by fighter aircraft, artillery shells and rocket launchers.
Army
Armored division
356 tanks, 198 infantry fighting vehicles, 45 howitzers, 12,500 soliders*
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Mechanized division
228 tanks, 346 infantry fighting vehicles, 45 howitzers, 14,500 soliders*
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Special forces division
Two-and-a-half years of civil war have taken a toll on Syrian forces, with casualties and questions about soldiers’ loyalty to Assad reducing the 220,000-strong Army to one-third strength. Only those closest to Assad — the 4th Armored Division, the Republican Guards (RG) and special forces units — are believed to be at or near full strength.
Militia
(Not shown)
Assad has augmented his conventional military units with less well-trained but more loyal localized militia forces.
Navy
The Syrian naval academy is located at Latakia and it has two Petya III frigates at Tartus. The country’s 16 Osa-class missile boats and six Tir-class fast-attack craft are split between the two ports while the regime also has an additional eight Zhuk coastal patrol craft in the area.
Ports
Syria's four military ports allow for the delivery of specialized heavy equipment from abroad and provide a home base for its small navy.
Roads
Assad relies on the control of major road networks to reinforce his ground forces and keep them supplied, although the air force has also been used for troop movements.
U.S. presence
Four Arleigh Burke Class destroyers have been moved into the eastern Mediterranean. Each one is likely to have around 45 Tomahawk cruise missile on board with a range of up to 1,000 nautical miles, according to the Institute for the Study of War. They may have been joined by attack submarines which are also equipped to fire Tomahawks.
U.S. ships can strike anywhere in Syria with cruise missiles from as far away as Crete.
