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SA-7 MANPADS? Yeah they got SA-7 MANPADS. I’m not really up on my man-portable air defense systems or (more to our remit) the anti-aircraft machine gun behind it in this picture. But it’s clear Syrian rebels are getting some serious guns ‘n stuff from someone friendly. Which wouldn’t be the Russians, necessarily (although this particular MANPAD is a Soviet export). Also evident: Syria’s anti-government forces are learning how to use these weapons effectively. Click here for a post-shoot down video of a Syrian MIG. While TTAG is a Guns R Us kinda blog I have to admit it: sometimes a missile is your best bet. [h/t cjchivers.com for the links]
Never bring just small arms to a missle fight.
looks like the standard russian 12.7mm. slightly longer casing than the 50 cal bmg. i believe it was labeled the “dsk” or dshk”. good weapon that’s vehicle mounted for the most part.
That’s exactly what that is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DShK
http://world.guns.ru/machine/rus/dshk-dshkm-e.html
Unfortunately, the Iraqi ADA school cadre spirited quite a few of these into the weeds when we arrived early in OIF and they continued to pop up all over the place.
Comming to a neighborhood near you
Syria is Iran’s proxy in the ME, so heavy weapons for the rebels would be from either the Israelis, the US, or the Saudis.
Or anyone willing to sell Soviet surplus. There’s a few of those characters in that part of the globe, too.
..or anyone opposed to Asad. So in other words, *everyone* minus North Korea, Russia & Iran.
Syria and Iran are now Russia’s Proxy. as for weapon systems the planet is flooded with Com-Block gear, China ships it in to ME through C. Africa, some times the shade of green paint is the easiest way to spot the Chinese product, sometimes not.
This stuff is coming from their comrades in Libya. Once the Muslim Brotherhood took over, Libyan munitions disappeared.
Assad is NOT a radical Islamist, he’s not Shi’a or Sunni. He’s an Alawite—a moderate Muslim mystic. The “rebels”, however, are radical Jihadis.
The recent massacre which was originally sold to us as being done by the Assad regime, now has been revealed to have been the work of the Jihadis.
I don’t care if Assad slaughters radical Islamists—because he’s never going to kill as many of them as we have.
Looks like the guy with the SA-7 has the complete system–thermal battery, grip stock, and the tube is still sealed (see http://www.state.gov/img/11/44907/SA7b_600_1.jpg – though the SA-7b shown doesn’t have the grip stock attached).
Wolverines! I also recognized the DShK (“Dushka” or ‘sweetheart’) after watching Red Dawn one more time last week. Watching Leah Thompson and Jennifer Grey rock the 12.7 = sheer happiness. I hope the remake proves to be as much fun!
In this video, it is clear that they obtained it from Bashar’s Syrian Arab Army, from the Air defense base in Abu Kamal, east of Syria. Not a single country supplied them with Manpads, all what they received are communication devices, fatigues and uniforms/boots, and some rifles. Then again, the title is misleading (They got manpadS), as I see only one, i’m doing a serious research on this topic and all what I found is this manpad, 1 in Daraa and one in Damascus…
We now know that it is Zeke (and his very dead Ambasador) who supplied the Stinger type weapons along with much more stuff and money (of Course)
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