Syrian Army performance in its ongoing civil war.

[6644kp]

Like the armies of most Arab nations the Syrian Army has proven itself once again utterly incompetent. From a military point of view they really failed, they failed to lauch a decisive offensive to wipe out the FSA in its birth and they have thus far failed to lauch offensives to take FSA's strongholds such as Hama and Homs and it has been a year that fighting has been ongoing in those cities. The Syrian Army's incompetence despite it numerical superiorty and their relativly large arsenal of heavy equipment to destroy the FSA swiftly and desceisivly has led the FSA to grow only stronger and they now have some 40,000 light troops.

The Army just uses their heavy equipment as mobile artillery and just shells rebel strongholds and lays siege to no end and only highlights I can see for the Syrian Army in terms of performance during the last year was their ability to finally capture the Baba Amr part of the city of Homs but still there a number of other large rebel parts of the city and they managed to shoot down an old Turkish jet fighter that was on a reconnaissance mission.

Its seems very unlikely now for the goverment troops to win the war because the FSA is far stronger now than a few months ago and the Syrian Army is blighted by bad leadership poorly trained scared conscript troops and deserters. The Syrian Air Force has around 400 combat jets and another 100 combat helicopters granted most of the are very old Soviet Russian craft but probably half of the are still air worty still this large air arm has been largly grounded for fear of further desertions.

Overall I would rank the performance of the Syrian Armed Forces as very very bad. The Libyan Armed forces also performed horrendously but they were much smaller and barly had any functioning heavy equipment left also from an army of 50,000 only 10,000 stayed loyal the rest deserted or changed sides to the transitional council. The Syrian Army has around 200,000 and though desertion claimed tens of thousands aswell their reserves should negate the effect.

[PointOfViewGun]

I'm gonna go ahead and guess that the Syrian officials fear of making it even more bloodier as it increases the chance of an intervention.

So, they're merely trying to intimidate the population to simply give up.

[Menelik_I]

Like the armies of most Arab nations the Syrian Army has proven itself once again utterly incompetent.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

From a military point of view they really failed, they failed to lauch a decisive offensive to wipe out the FSA in its birth and they have thus far failed to lauch offensives to take FSA's strongholds such as Hama and Homs and it has been a year that fighting has been ongoing in those cities. The Syrian Army's incompetence despite it numerical superiorty and their relativly large arsenal of heavy equipment to destroy the FSA swiftly and desceisivly has led the FSA to grow only stronger and they now have some 40,000 light troops.

The Army just uses their heavy equipment as mobile artillery and just shells rebel strongholds and lays siege to no end and only highlights I can see for the Syrian Army in terms of performance during the last year was their ability to finally capture the Baba Amr part of the city of Homs but still there a number of other large rebel parts of the city and they managed to shoot down an old Turkish jet fighter that was on a reconnaissance mission.

Its seems very unlikely now for the goverment troops to win the war because the FSA is far stronger now than a few months ago and the Syrian Army is blighted by bad leadership poorly trained scared conscript troops and deserters. The Syrian Air Force has around 400 combat jets and another 100 combat helicopters granted most of the are very old Soviet Russian craft but probably half of the are still air worty still this large air arm has been largly grounded for fear of further desertions.

Overall I would rank the performance of the Syrian Armed Forces as very very bad. The Libyan Armed forces also performed horrendously but they were much smaller and barly had any functioning heavy equipment left also from an army of 50,000 only 10,000 stayed loyal the rest deserted or changed sides to the transitional council. The Syrian Army has around 200,000 and though desertion claimed tens of thousands aswell their reserves should negate the effect.

Actually the Syrian Army was handling the situation very well and managed to defeat the opposition strategically at the beginning of the year, but then the combined assistance of the US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar changed everything.

[Treize]

Actually the Syrian Army was handling the situation very well and managed to defeat the opposition strategically at the beginning of the year, but then the combined assistance of the US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar changed everything.

This.

[Condottiere 40K]

It's probably more the failure of the internal security organs that failed to keep a lid on the situation, since the necessarily large number of non-Alawite Sunni conscripts would have made army involvement problematic at any point. All things considered, probably has done as well as can be expected in view of their political and PR restrictions.

[Holger Danske]

Since when have a modern arab army been any good?

Serious question!

[Jaketh]

Since when have a modern arab army been any good?

Serious question!

Since never.

[Yosemite]

Since never.

how about you don't lie to yourself

[Sphere]

Since when have a modern arab army been any good?

Serious question!

Both the UAE and Omani military's are considered fairly effective forces. Most of their current forces are descended British colonial units like the Trucial Oman Scouts.

Their officers are mostly trained at Sandhurst, they often employ ex-British NCO's and officers as advisers, and their equipment is American/European. They also do not rely heavily on conscription. They have quietly participated in both Gulf wars and Afghanistan.

[Kitsunegari]

The Saudis have one of the largest military budgets in the world and get tons of hardware from the US and others, yet their performance in the first Gulf war was pretty embarrassing IIRC.

[Blaze86420]

The Saudis have one of the largest military budgets in the world and get tons of hardware from the US and others, yet there performance in the first Gulf war was pretty embarrassing IIRC.

They have abysmal training. Honestly, the way I see it, Al Saud deliberately keeps the military weak but happy in order to avoid military coups that put an end to so many other Arab monarchies.

[Kitsunegari]

They have abysmal training. Honestly, the way I see it, Al Saud deliberately keeps the military weak but happy in order to avoid military coups that put an end to so many other Arab monarchies.

Good point, it was speculated that Qaddafi kept the Libyan military weak for similar reasons.

[Vanoi]

They messed up the second they thought shelling things like civilian neighborhoods would win them a war. Maybe they should have looked at the Wars in Afghanistan and Vietnam. Killing civilians won't beat the insurgency.

[Col. Tartleton]

They messed up the second they thought shelling things like civilian neighborhoods would win them a war. Maybe they should have looked at the Wars in Afghanistan and Vietnam. Killing civilians won't beat the insurgency.

Killing a few of the civilians won't beat the insurgency.

Killing all of the civilians should work.

We are talking about Syrians after all. Grotesque overkill is their middle name.

[AqD]

Without foreign interventions, they could just pick one city and bombard to complete ashes, setting an example. Kill a few millions of people and others would undoubtedly surrender.

[magpie]

They are simply not ruthless as an army. Firing the odd shell into builtup neighbourhoods is not going to win any battles.
Ruined or damaged buildings are also good cover for defendents.
They would have to employ the tactics of the old German army as in Warsaw heavily armed troops against lightly armed defender,s to have any hope of success.

[6644kp]

They are simply not ruthless as an army. Firing the odd shell into builtup neighbourhoods is not going to win any battles.
Ruined or damaged buildings are also good cover for defendents.
They would have to employ the tactics of the old German army as in Warsaw heavily armed troops against lightly armed defender,s to have any hope of success.

Or they could simply identify rebel strongholds such as Homs and Hama and launch a major offensive and take them and wipe the rebellion out. The rebels need territory too to operate and have a base of operations.

[Treize]

Or they could simply identify rebel strongholds such as Homs and Hama and launch a major offensive and take them and wipe the rebellion out. The rebels need territory too to operate and have a base of operations.

Invading Turkey would be rather stupid.

[Menelik_I]

Or they could simply identify rebel strongholds such as Homs and Hama and launch a major offensive and take them and wipe the rebellion out. The rebels need territory too to operate and have a base of operations.

They can't, because the rebels have infiltrated all the major cities with weapons so that there are urban battles even on the streets of Damascus.

What Al Assad could do would be to do like Gaddafi in Libya and concede part of the country to the rebels to switch the war from insurrection to civil war, so has to enjoy a significant advantage in defined front battles with artillery and minefields.

But I don't know how the geography of Syria will work in this context, and giving up the border areas might just increase the flux of weapons from Turkey, also this will just make a Libyan style bombing campaign all the more easier.

[6644kp]

They can't, because the rebels have infiltrated all the major cities with weapons so that there are urban battles even on the streets of Damascus.

What Al Assad could do would be to do like Gaddafi in Libya and concede part of the country to the rebels to switch the war from insurrection to civil war, so has to enjoy a significant advantage in defined front battles with artillery and minefields.

But I don't know how the geography of Syria will work in this context, and giving up the border areas might just increase the flux of weapons from Turkey, also this will just make a Libyan style bombing campaign all the more easier.

It is true that Turkey is a major headache for the Syrian Army since the FSA is based there but the FSA troops in Syria all have their own smaller bases of operation such as in the cities of Homs and Hama and numerous towns and villages across Syria and in Damascus itself. The Syrian Army has takes some of these smaller settlements and is fighting still after a year in Homs and Hama tryin to retake those cities wholly.

But thats the thing they have been unable to launch a major coordinated offensive against all rebel strongholds across the nation and then to solidfy the border with Turkey so that not even one person can cross thus effectivly killing the FSA and ending the war.

Skilled Commanders can turn any guerrila war into a regular war. A guerrila is infact already a regular war its just that the weaker side is smaller in number and based in smaller harder to acces places but both sodes need to hold territory to function.