Weapons Used in Syrian Conflict

Countries involved in the Syrian conflict have deployed a number of cutting edge weapons and platforms never before used in a conflict zone.

Among the weapons and equipment that have caught attention include:

Uran-9 Armed Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) and S-8OFP unguided aircraft missile from Russia

Delilah cruise missile and Harop loitering munition from Israel

Tomahawk cruise missile and Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile from the US

Defenseworld.net looks into some of the weapons that are used in the Syrian conflict

Russia

Uran-9: It is designed to deliver combined combat, reconnaissance and counter-terrorism units with remote reconnaissance and fire support.Uran-9 has a weight of 10 tons. Its unmanned turret aims automatically to engage ground and aerial targets

S-8OFP Unguided Aircraft Missile (NAR): The missile is an upgraded version in the 80mm S-8 rocket and is designed to be deployed from aerial platforms such as tactical military aircraft and combat helicopters.

The weapon can be fired at light armoured vehicles, battle tanks, armoured personnel carriers, and surface vessels. The weapon has a maximum length of approximately 1.5m and a total weight of 16.2kg. Warhead weighs between 9k and 9.5kg, whereas the weight of the explosive material is between 2.5and 2.9kg.

Israel

Delilah cruise missile: The Delilah is a short-range, road-mobile, air-to-surface and surface-to-surface missile. Originally developed as a UAV decoy, the Delilah was modified into a lightweight, anti-radar missile.

Israel used the missile in combat for the first time in July and August 2006, fired from an F-16D aircraft, targeting a convoy of trucks suspected of transporting weapons from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Harop: Harop loitering munition (LM) system loiters over battlefield and attacks the targets by self-destructing into them.

The UCAV can be controlled using a remote when it is in flight. In 2018 and 2019 they were used by the Israel Defense Forces to destroy Syrian Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft system.

U.S.A

Tomahawk cruise missile: It is an intermediate range, subsonic cruise missile.

US warships launched 59 of these missiles at a Syrian airbase that housed warplanes that carried out chemical attacks on April 2017. A year later, the US launched 66 of them at Syrian targets near Damascus and Homs.

Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile: It is a stealthy, air-launched ground-attack cruise missile. The missile was first used in April 2018 during the Syrian Civil War. America fired a total of 19 JASSMs in 2016 alone.