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Equipment of the Syrian army. Arsenal of the Syrian war. Kunstkammer of Armaments. Heavy armored vehicles, artillery

During military operation in Syria, the Russian Armed Forces tested many of the latest models in battle Russian weapons and technology. At the same time, for the first time, vehicles that had been in service for decades were used in combat. However, first things first.

Strategic missile carrier Tu-160 "White Swan" with Kh-101 missiles

Supersonic strategic missile-carrying bombers Tu-160 "White Swan", which in the West are called Blackjack, began to operate back in 1987. However, the first combat use of “swans” took place in Syria in 2015.

Russia currently has 16 such aircraft, but up to 50 modernized aircraft should soon enter service.

The formidable missile carrier, which is considered a means of nuclear deterrence, destroyed terrorists with conventional ammunition - KAB-500 aerial bombs and Kh-101 cruise missiles.

The latter are worth mentioning separately, since they were also used for the first time in Syria. This cruise missiles new generation, with a fantastic flight range of 5,500 kilometers, several times more than that of European and American analogues. The rocket is oriented in space using a combined navigation system: inertial plus GLONASS. The X-101 flies in an altitude range from 30 meters to 10 kilometers, is invisible to radar and is very accurate - the maximum deviation from the target at the maximum range does not exceed five meters. Unlike its predecessors, the missile can also destroy moving targets. The mass of the X-101 high-explosive fragmentation warhead is 400 kilograms. The nuclear version of the missile, the Kh-102, carries a 250-kiloton warhead.

According to a number of experts, by using strategic aviation in Syria, Russia tried new strategy, making a revolution in military affairs.

Small missile ships of the Buyan-M project with Caliber missiles

Small missile ships of Project 21631 "Buyan-M" are multi-purpose ships of the "river-sea" class. Their weapons include artillery installation A-190, machine gun mounts of 14.5 and 7.62 mm calibers, as well as the Duet anti-aircraft artillery system, and Kalibr-NK and Oniks anti-ship cruise missiles. The autonomous navigation of such a ship can last up to ten days.

During the war in Syria, Caliber cruise missiles managed not only to undergo a baptism of fire, but also to acquire the status of world famous. The hits of these missiles on targets, filmed by drones, as well as video recordings of their launches became one of the business cards Russian Navy.

Unlike foreign competitors, Kalibr can fly in a wide range of speeds from subsonic to three times the speed of sound. Guidance on the final section of the trajectory is carried out using noise-resistant active radar homing heads.

The missiles are capable of penetrating any air defense and missile defense. The flight occurs at an altitude of 50 to 150 meters, and when approaching the target, the missile drops to twenty meters and delivers an impact that cannot be prevented. The missiles fly along a complex trajectory with changes in altitude and direction of movement. This gives her the opportunity to approach the target from any direction unexpected for the enemy.

As for the accuracy of the hit, the expression “hits the bull’s eye” is appropriate here. For example, the export version of the "Caliber" fires at a range of 300 kilometers and destroys a target with a diameter of 1-2 meters. It is clear that the missiles used by the Russian Navy have even higher accuracy characteristics.

In Syria, Caliber launches were carried out from small missile ships Uglich, Grad Sviyazhsk, Veliky Ustyug, Zeleny Dol and Serpukhov (as well as from other types of ships and submarines).

Russian cruise "Calibers" have already become a headache for the United States - after all, in the anti-ship version they are more effective than the American Tomahawks, and their placement on small-displacement ships creates many difficulties for potential adversaries.

Guided projectiles "Krasnopol"

In Syria, Russian troops were used for the first time to eliminate terrorists. artillery shells"Krasnopol". Firing range modern modifications"Krasnopol" is 30 kilometers away. The mass of explosive in this type of ammunition ranges from 6.5 to 11 kilograms.

One of the main features of the machine is its high maneuverability. Besides, " Night Hunter"can carry out combat missions at any time of the day.

The armored helicopter cabin protects the crew from 20 mm shells and armor-piercing bullets. The armor also protects the most important helicopter systems. The Mi-28N is equipped with a radar located above the propeller hub. The use of this complex allows you to effectively search, detect, recognize and defeat ground and air targets. The helicopter is armed with a 30 mm automatic cannon. It can also carry guided (anti-tank) or unguided (anti-infantry and light vehicles) air-to-ground missiles. The possibility of installing air-to-air missiles is also provided, which allows the Mi-28UB to destroy not only airplanes and helicopters, but also small-sized drones and even cruise missiles. The helicopter has four hardpoints and, among other things, can be used for laying minefields.

Two such helicopters were on board the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov during the Syrian campaign. There, the Ka-52K took off and carried out test launches of missiles.

The Ka-52K "Katran" is a ship-based version of the Ka-52 "Alligator" and is designed for patrolling, fire support for landing troops during landings on the shore, and solving anti-landing defense tasks at the front line and in tactical depth at any time of the day.

The ship's Katran differs from the basic version by the presence of a shortened folding wing, which was modified to accommodate heavy weapons, and a mechanism for folding the blades, which allows it to be compactly located in the hold.

However, despite its “miniature dimensions,” the Ka-52K has formidable weapons. These are torpedoes, depth charges and anti-ship cruise missiles.

The helicopter is equipped with a laser-beam weapon guidance system and an Okhotnik video image processing system. The Vitebsk optical-electronic complex protects the Katran from being hit by missiles with infrared homing heads.

Tank T-90

However, the Tu-160, Mi-28N and Admiral Kuznetsov are not the only well-known “oldies” first seen in combat in Syria.

T-90s were first used by Syrian troops in Aleppo province in 2016.

In addition, the T-90 secret weapon was tested for the first time in Syria - the Shtora-1 optical-electronic suppression complex, designed specifically to protect the tank from ATGMs.

Syrian tank crews highly appreciated the capabilities of the T-90. They called its only drawback the lack of air conditioning, which makes it difficult to conduct combat in desert conditions.

It recently became known that the tank was modernized taking into account Syrian experience.

Armored cars "Typhoon"

New Russian armored vehicles "Typhoon" were also tested for the first time in Syria. At the beginning of 2017, a Typhoon-K armored vehicle was spotted there.

K63968 "Typhoon-K" is a cabover multifunctional modular vehicle. In the modification for transporting personnel, it can accommodate up to 16 people. Landing can be carried out either using a ramp or through a door. The vehicle's cabin is protected by reinforced armor. It is also possible to install an armor shield on the windshield.

The new armored car is not afraid of even some types of RPGs. The car is saved from these “tank killers” by special hanging elements, which reliably protect the crew from cumulative jets. The Typhoon wheels are bulletproof and equipped with special anti-explosion inserts.

The weight of a fully equipped Typhoon is 24 tons, the hull length is 8990 millimeters, and the width is 2550 millimeters. 450 Horse power engines allow the armored car to move at a speed of 110 kilometers per hour.

The vehicle is built on a 6x6 wheel arrangement, which allows it to easily overcome off-road conditions, snow drifts and any other types of obstacles. In Syria, Typhoons are used not only to transport personnel, but also, for example, to deliver humanitarian aid.

The data coming from Syria is already enough to evaluate the weapons used there. "Defend Russia" lists the main weapons of the Syrian campaign.

OFAB-250-270

Let's start with the basics. This is our favorite “cast iron”: free-falling high-explosive fragmentation bombs. Weight 266 kg, of which 94 kg are explosives. It is used to destroy unprotected ground targets, artillery positions, manpower, as well as openly located lightly armored and automotive vehicles.

A high-explosive fragmentation bomb is an analogue of a standard high-explosive bomb, but has less explosive filling (30-35% versus 50% for high-explosive bombs) due to the introduction into the design of special solutions designed to crush the body into damaging elements: a sawtooth structure of the inner surface of the body, special undercuts, etc.

Specifically, OFAB-250-270 produces about 11,500 fragments, giving a continuous damage area within a radius of over 50 meters.

It is these ammunition that are now most actively used in Syria. In video footage they were repeatedly demonstrated under the fuselages and wings of the Su-25 and.

Where are the precision weapons? - you ask. First, read on. Secondly, do not forget that not only the weapon itself is highly accurate, but also the aviation complex that uses it.

For example, the Su-24M flying in Syria recently underwent modernization according to the Metronom design and development work with the installation of a new SVP-24 Hephaestus sighting and navigation system. This system, equipped with a complex set of accounting for external influences and precise definition position, allows you to strike with conventional “cast iron” guns with an accuracy close to the accuracy of adjustable aerial bombs.

BetAB-500

This is a concrete-piercing bomb weighing 476 kg, the use of which from an aircraft at a protected terrorist command post near the city of Raqqa was reported by the Ministry of Defense.

A bomb of this type is equipped with a warhead containing 45 kg of TA-77/23 explosive (TNT-aluminum mixture). It is capable of penetrating barriers one meter deep of reinforced concrete.

RBC-500

Disposable bomb clusters weighing about 500 kg with a variety of useful fillings.

These munitions were not visually detected in photographs and videos from Syria, but the nature of the defeat, as well as the descriptions of the airstrikes, can be assumed either to have already been used, or to promptly deliver these weapons to militant positions.

There are a lot of RBC cassette options. These can be fragmentation, high-explosive, concrete-piercing and incendiary submunitions, as well as self-aiming combat elements designed to destroy armored vehicles. In addition, these cassettes can be used to seed mines.

This is a “GLONASS bomb”: a satellite-guided satellite-guided munition. It has a mass of 560 kg (of which 380 kg is the mass of the high-explosive warhead). The bomb is designed to destroy stationary objects whose coordinates are known with good accuracy.

The basic versions of the KAB-500 (KAB-500L and KAB-500Kr) were equipped with laser and television-correlation homing heads; they were put into service in the second half of the 1970s. The KAB-500S version was significantly redesigned and was tested already in the 2000s.

Photo: Ministry of Defense Facebook

X-25 ML

These missiles belong to those put into service in 1981. This family includes several types of missiles - in particular, with radio command and passive radar guidance, and later (already in the 1990s) - with television and thermal imaging guidance systems. All missiles are maximally unified in terms of components and assemblies (engine, warhead, stabilization systems) and provide easy docking of various modules, including guidance systems.

Specifically, the X-25 ML is equipped with a 24N1 laser homing head. This 300-kilogram missile carries a high-explosive fragmentation warhead weighing 90 kg and is designed to destroy stationary ground targets at a range of up to 10 km.

Photo: Ministry of Defense Facebook

X-29L

From the same generation that entered the military in 1980. These missiles are unified in their homing system with the Kh-25 ML (also a laser head), but are much more powerful: the launch weight is 660 kg, about half of which is high-explosive-penetrating combat unit.

These missiles were designed specifically to combat buried or protected objects: strong aircraft shelters, bunkers, bunkers, underground warehouses, stationary railway and road bridges, industrial structures, concrete runways. In addition, it can be used to destroy ships with a displacement of up to 10 thousand tons.

The standard Kh-29L missile has a range of about 10 km, the modernized Kh-29 ML “flies” somewhat further.

There is another modification of this missile (X-29T), equipped with a Tubus-2 television guidance system.

From the Second World War, millions of different weapons remained, and not all of them were melted down or on the dusty shelves of arsenals. The unit continued its war, only in the hands of other soldiers.

We have written more than once about Soviet weapons, which still serve their new owners, but German models have also been distributed throughout the world. In its material, the site took a closer look at weapons from the Wehrmacht era, which are now used in Syria.

StG 44

During World War II, StG 44 assault rifles were used mainly by elite SS units. At that time, the weapon was considered advanced, and indeed the StG 44 was the first weapon in its class to be mass-produced. In total, about 450 thousand of these machines were produced.

Terrorists from StG 44, Syria. flickr.com

Most of these weapons came from Czechoslovakia in 1950-1965. Moreover, for a short time this assault rifle released in Turkey.

Honor guard with StG-44, Czechoslovakia. Photo: axishistory.com

The rifle could be equipped with optical and infrared sights. Among the shortcomings - heavy weight weapons (5.2 kg), an easily deformable receiver and a stock, the fastening of which could break in hand-to-hand combat.

A militant fires from StG 44, Syria. Image: youtube.com

As an advantage, one can note the accuracy when firing single shots. However, the bursts also worked well: on a target with a diameter of 11.5 cm at a distance of 100 m, more than half of the bullets fit into a circle with a diameter of 5.4 cm.

Wehrmacht light howitzer

The light howitzer le.F.H.18M could well have been used in the Battle of Stalingrad or any other fierce battle during the Great Patriotic War Patriotic War. This gun is a modernized version of the light howitzer le.F.H.18, which participated in Wehrmacht companies from the first days of World War II, but it had disadvantages, for example, a relatively short firing range.

Production modernized version started in 1940. The Germans created specially for shooting at maximum range high-explosive fragmentation projectile 10.5 cm FH Gr Fern weighing 14.25 kg (TNT weight - 2.1 kg). When firing with charge No. 6 starting speed was 540 m/s, and the firing range was 12,325 m.

A total of 6,933 such guns were produced. During modernization, it was not possible to get rid of one serious drawback - heavy weight. To solve this issue, the barrel of the le.F.H.18M howitzer was placed on a 75-mm carriage anti-tank gun Cancer 40. The resulting “hybrid” was adopted under the designation le.F.H.18/40. The new gun weighed almost a quarter ton less in firing position.

After the war, these German howitzers were modernized in Czechoslovakia, where the le.F.H.18/40 barrel was placed on the carriage of the Soviet 122-mm M-30 howitzer. This weapon was designated le.F.H.18/40N. In Syria, such a howitzer was seen among militants of the Ahrar al-Sham group.

MP-38/40

German MP-38/40 submachine guns were purchased in small quantities by Damascus starting in the 60s. This weapon was not particularly popular in Syria. It was rarely seen in the hands of security forces in the 70s, some of which were transferred to the Lebanese military.

This weapon has a number of advantages and disadvantages. The low rate of fire of the MP-38/40 allows an experienced shooter to conduct single fire with short presses of the trigger.

The ammunition used in the MP-40 - 9x19 Parabellum - has a good stopping effect, but makes the SMG useless at a range of more than 150 meters.

MP-40 is sensitive to dirt due to the presence of a damper in the design. If dirt got inside the bolt frame, then shooting was impossible.

MG-34

The MG-34 is the first single machine gun ever put into service. The machine gun could be used in a manual or easel version, and the installation of an optical sight was allowed.

Syria, Latakia. In the hands of a machine gunner MG-34. Image: youtube.com

It has a high rate of fire (up to 1000 rounds/min) and has lethal ammunition (7.92x57 Mauser). This machine gun was portable and could easily support infantry units with fire.

Weapons captured from militants by the Syrian army. There is an MG-34 in the center. Photo: colonelcassad.livejournal.com

Despite a lot of advantages, the MG-34 had obvious disadvantages - heavy weight, great sensitivity to contamination of the receiver and to thickening of the lubricant at low temperatures, which led to delays when firing.

At the beginning of the civil war in Syria, the machine gun was used quite often - this weapon was one of the first to be stolen by militants from warehouses.

MG-42

This machine gun was created to replace the MG-34. The MG-42 turned out to be more reliable, cheaper, and its metal consumption was reduced by 50%. The new machine gun was not afraid of dirt and allowed almost continuous shooting.

ISIS fighter with MG-42. Image: youtube.com

The rate of fire of the MG-42 reached 1500 rounds/min. After World War II, the career of this machine gun did not end, and it is still in service in many countries around the world.

By the way, the gunsmiths from Beretta made a version called MG-42/59 for the Italian army during cold war(7.62 NATO cartridges are used), but the rate of fire was lower (800 rounds/min.).

This version was seen in service with ISIS militants. As for the original MG-42s, in the late 1940s and early 1950s Syria received no a large number of original WWII MG-42s from France and Czechoslovakia.

Until recently, militants of the Islamic State actively pursued an occupation policy to capture large territories Iraq and Syria. One of the secrets of success was the arming of terrorists.

Light weapons.

The human rights organization Amnesty International published a report according to which the militants “ Islamic State“They have a huge amount of weapons. It has been flowing uncontrollably into the Middle East for decades, mainly from the United States and its allies. According to human rights activists international organization Amnesty International weapons supplied to even “moderate” groups can easily change hands and end up in the hands of extremists. Terrorists use more than 100 types of weapons, originating from approximately 25 countries.

Most modern weapons and ammunition for it (as a result of large-scale US supplies), including armored vehicles different classes, militants captured from the Iraqi army retreating from Mosul, where military warehouses were located. “The variety of weaponry used by the group demonstrates how reckless arms trafficking drives large-scale violence,” researcher Patrick Wilken said in the report.

Consider a report from Conflict Armament Research (CAR).

According to the organization, during the conflict in Iraq and Syria, bullets and cartridges produced in the United States were repeatedly found on the battlefield. More specifically, among the 1,700 gun casings examined from cartridges used by jihadists, more than 20% were American-made. Another interesting fact is the discovery of cartridge cases produced in Iran, China, the USSR and a number of other countries of the former communist camp, manufactured since 1945. The bulk of this ammunition was collected in Iraq and northern Syria (Gatash, Khaira).

Also, experts found a number of special finds. The first of them is the M-79 Osa hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher made in Yugoslavia. It can fire 90mm rockets.

M79 "Wasp"

Experts claim that it was these grenade launchers that Saudi Arabia supplied to the oppositionists of the Free Syrian army in 2013. Thus, in Once again there is a connection between the ruling Saudi dynasty and Islamic State militants (officially condemned by the government Saudi Arabia). The next example is an assault rifle manufactured by Colt Defense and FN Manufacturing, which is in service with the United States Army. We are talking about the Colt M16A4 rifle (one of the latest modifications). Another type of American weapon captured from jihadists is the XM15 E2S semi-automatic rifle - essentially the same M16, but its “civilian version,” so to speak, manufactured by Bushmaster. According to researchers, both rifles were captured by Islamic State terrorists at military warehouses of the Iraqi army.

Bushmaster XM15-E2S

It is worth noting that one of the main and massive view The militants' weapon is a 7.62 mm Kalashnikov assault rifle. Specifically, samples from 1960, 1964 and 1970 were seized.

Talking about samples precision weapons, it is worth mentioning the Croatian sniper rifle Elmech EM992. It was created on the basis of a German repeating carbine developed in 1935, the Mauser 98k, which was still in service in parts of the Third Reich. Another sniper rifle discovered by the militants was the Chinese Type 79 7.62 mm caliber. This instance is an exact copy SVD sniper rifle, which was produced in the USSR.

Elmech EM992

Based on the data obtained, the following main sources of weapons for ISIS can be identified:

Syrian army warehouses,
Iraqi army warehouses,
weapons captured in battle
acquired in the process of active foreign trade.

Heavy armored vehicles, artillery.

Speaking about the presence of armored vehicles and artillery systems among ISIS militants, it is worth mentioning the words of Iraqi Prime Minister Al-Abadi about the capture of 2,300 all-terrain armored vehicles with heavy small arms HUMVEE made in the United States during the battles near Mosul in 2015.

An American soldier in the machine gun compartment of an armored vehicle HUMVEE

The Pentagon, in turn, provided disappointing data on the availability, until recently, of more than a hundred American Abrams M1A1 main battle tanks in the hands of militants. Although supporters of the “conspiracy theory” claim that there was only a veiled transfer of technology to the so-called. “moderate opposition” to counter the “Assad regime” in Syria.

According to various sources The army of the “caliphate” at the peak of its power had 140 Abrams tanks of the M1A1 modification. Almost all of them were captured in ambushes on Iraqi troops in Anbar province. This generation of tanks has been produced since 1984 and is equipped with a 120-mm smoothbore gun, forty rounds of ammunition, reinforced frontal armor and integrated system protection of the crew from weapons of mass destruction with the possibility of air conditioning. The cost of such a tank is about $4.3 million per unit.

As a result of the large-scale retreat of the Iraqi Army, the city of Ramadi with a population of 850 thousand people and hundreds of pieces of heavy equipment, including artillery, passed into the hands of terrorists. According to preliminary estimates, 52 M198 Howitzer artillery towed howitzers costing $0.5 million each, made in the USA. Systems developed in the 1970s, produced in an amount of about 1,700 units, are still in service with the armies of the USA, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Bahrain, Honduras, Greece, Lebanon, India, Pakistan, Tunisia, Ecuador, Thailand.

American troops fire from an M198 Howitzer

Do not forget that in addition to American military equipment, ISIS was armed with a large amount of such production Soviet Union, namely: T-55 – medium tank the sixties and seventies of the last century, which essentially served as the progenitor of main battle tanks, the T-62 is also a Soviet medium tank, a continuation and modification of the T-55 vehicles, and light armored vehicles BMP and BRDM. The most modern model in this series was the Russian T-90 tank, captured from government forces more than six months ago. The militants received the vehicle fully combat-ready, resold it several times and eventually “resurfaced” in battles in the province of Hama, however, its appearance will not play a particular turning point, due to the availability of modern anti-tank weapons in the SAA.

T-90 tank captured by terrorists

A number of sources also indicate that the militants have rocket systems volley fire(MLRS) BM-21 and operational-tactical missile systems(OTRK) SCUD of the Iraqi army, built on the basis of Soviet R-17 ballistic missiles. However, the extremely difficult to master technology, requiring qualified specialists and a number of other factors invisible to the average person, led to the fact that not a single SCAD rocket took off.

Iraqi militants have a Scud missile

Light armored vehicles. Motorized infantry.

Combat tactics in Iraq and Syria require highly mobile units, which have become combat units based on pickup trucks. Today, armed pickup trucks can be found wherever there is fighting: in South American countries, where guerrillas fight the government, drug traffickers fight the law, and police fight gangs - there, special law enforcement units use pickup trucks for their own purposes. In Iraq, a machine gun mounted on a police car is the norm, and the larger the caliber, the better. In Afghanistan, combat pickup trucks are called “technicals,” and not only terrorists, but most special forces of the NATO contingent travel on them. Exactly the same situation is now developing in the territories of Syria and Iraq, where pickup trucks with mounted heavy machine guns are used by all parties to the conflict, including the Forces special operations RF.

Among the many models of pickup trucks, the Toyota Hilux is the most popular among militants today. The US military compares this pickup truck in terms of reliability with a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

Syrian army vehicles. Photo: twitter.com/MathieuMorant

The main armament of such vehicles on the IS side was the DShKM heavy machine gun (or its Chinese analogue “Type 54”). It is a modernized machine gun of Degtyarev and Shpagin. Despite the fact that this type of weapon was adopted by the Red Army back in 1938, it still represents a formidable force today thanks to high efficiency firing at armored targets and rate of fire.

The second most popular installation on pickup trucks is the 14.5 mm Vladimirov heavy machine gun (KPVT), which poses a serious threat to light armored vehicles and aircraft. Often machine guns are simply removed from damaged armored vehicles, handles are welded to them, and a sight is installed. In addition, a significant part of the “technicals” are equipped with launchers of unguided rockets. Basically, helicopter blocks installed on homemade machines are used in this role. But there are also absolutely homemade designs that lack sights and missile stabilization, which makes such weapons ineffective.

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It is worth noting that there are also pickup trucks equipped with truly formidable artillery weapons– 107 mm Type 63 multiple launch rocket system, made in China and quadruple launcher Egyptian-made 122mm SACR missiles. However, firing from them often poses a threat to the terrorists themselves: a car carelessly left on the rise threatens to tip over and shoot itself, and the rocket’s jet stream can cause the car to catch fire or the ammunition in the back of the car to detonate. ISIS terrorists use American 106-mm M40 recoilless rifles as direct fire support weapons.

However, faced with the realities of combat in the city, the “teknikals” began to be heavily armored. They additionally began to be equipped with armor plates in the front part of the vehicle, and homemade shields for the machine gunner in the back. For these purposes, hatches from infantry fighting vehicles were often used.

The logic behind the choice of pickup trucks by the military is clear and is explained by the fact that they have a number of advantages:

– capacity: a ton of cargo or up to 20 fighters with weapons, which is inaccessible to a regular jeep.

- in case of sudden shelling vehicle can be easily abandoned;

– speed of movement and striking,

– the ability to install powerful weapons directly into the body, thus compensating for the lack of armored vehicles and aviation and artillery support.

Aviation

In the first year of the war in Syria and Iraq, caliphate militants captured a number of American UH60 Black Hawk helicopters and Soviet-made MiG-21 and MiG-23 fighters. However, the complete air supremacy of Russian and NATO aircraft, the establishment over the Khmeimim and Tartus bases using anti-aircraft missile systems () and Pantsir-S1, did not allow these “trophies” to rise into the sky. Most of them were destroyed by government forces while still on the ground.

At the same time, militants are actively using unmanned aerial vehicles aircrafts, based on commercial models of quadcopters and hexacopters. They tune them with video cameras high resolution, reinforced with batteries and mortar shells, hanging them on a UAV and dropping them over the positions of regular troops in Iraq and Syria.

Air defense

ISIS fighters often use large-caliber machine guns and portable anti-aircraft missile systems(MANPADS). At destroyed government bases, terrorists were able to capture a small number of American Stinger systems. ISIS is also armed with Russian MANPADS"Strela", "Igla" and their foreign "replicas". Using these systems, they managed to shoot down several government helicopters.

Militants armed with Stinger MANPADS (USA) in the back of a pickup truck

Anti-tank systems

RPG-7 grenade launchers have become the main anti-tank weapons of the soldiers of the self-proclaimed caliphate - they are cheap and easy to use. Among the captured weapons were a number of Konkurs and Fagot anti-tank guided systems and Chinese HJ-8 ATGMs capable of hitting targets at distances of up to three kilometers. The most modern anti-tank complex, which militants also use against helicopters at low altitudes or hovering, is the American TOW, supplied by the US so-called. "moderate opposition" in Syria. They account for the main losses of government armored vehicles and the bulk of the “media” campaign of IS militants.

Mortars

Since the end of 2013, ISIS has begun mass production and use of homemade mortars. Hellfire" They are homemade howitzers, the shells for which are household ones. gas cylinders stuffed with an increased charge of ammonium nitrate and destructive elements to increase the number of victims. As a means of ensuring explosions, a homemade fuse or a standard one from artillery ammunition is equipped. Such a “projectile” can be equipped with a chemical agent (there are proven cases of militants using mustard gas and mustard gas). The shooting accuracy of such weapons is quite low, but the destructive power is very high.

An IS terrorist loads a homemade projectile into a homemade mortar

Ballistics calculation using a tablet

Analyzing pictures from social networks and publicly available information on the Internet, it is clear that militants use tablets to aim mortars Apple iPad with public software MBC (Mortar Ballistic Calculator), which allows you to calculate the trajectory of mortar shells. By purchasing the application for little money and having data about the wind, distance to the target, etc. From the appropriate devices, easily available in online stores, IS militants can fire standard mortars with the required accuracy.

To summarize, it is worth saying that the weapons and military equipment militants are by no means limited to the above. Due to the lack of standard and centrally supplied weapons, terrorists have to replace them with a motley mass of handicraft weapons and modified, converted, restored samples (such as the T-34 tank from the Great Patriotic War, which can be fired as if from a gun remotely using a cord) .

Terrorists in Yemen use T-34 against Saudi soldiers