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Syria Military : Army
In 1987, the army was overwhelmingly the dominant service. In
addition to its control of the seniormost posts in the armed
forces' establishment, the army had the largest manpower,
approximately 80 percent of the combined services. In 1985 army
regulars were estimated at 396,000, with an additional 300,000
reserves. The army had nine divisional formations. The major
development in force organization was establishment of an
additional divisional framework based on the special forces and
organization of ground formations into two corps. The army's
active manpower served in two all-arms army corps, five armored
divisions (with one independent armored brigade), three
mechanized divisions, one infantry-special forces division, and
ten airborne-special forces independent brigades.
In addition to being the largest, the army was the best
equipped of the three services, with over 4,100 Soviet-built
tanks (including 1,000 of the advanced T-72's) and a formidable
air defense system of SAM batteries and myriad antiaircraft guns
and artillery. In 1987, Syria was scheduled to receive 500 new
Soviet SS-23 ballistic missiles with a range of 500 kilometers.
Syria was also reported to have begun producing its own chemical
weapons, including nerve gases, with the capability to use the
chemical agents in missile warheads. The Air Defense Command,
within the Army Command, but also composed of Air Force
personnel, numbered approximately 60,000. It served in twenty air
defense brigades (with approximately ninety-five SAM batteries)
and two air defense regiments. The Air Defense Command had
command access to interceptor aircraft and radar facilities. Air
defenses included SA-5 long-range SAM batteries around Damascus
and Aleppo, with additional SA-6 and SA-8 mobile SAM units
deployed along Syria's side of the Lebanese border and in eastern
Lebanon, and short-range SS-21 surface-to-surface missiles with
conventional warheads. The 1,800-man Border Guard (sometimes
designated as Desert Guard or Frontier Force) was also under Army
Command and responsible for patrolling the nation's vast border
areas
(see table 11, Major Army
Equipment, 1986, Appendix).
Data as of April 1987
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