Every war the Syrian Air Force has fought
The air force has fought for the governments before 1970, for the Assad government from 1970 to December 2024 and, since then, for the new government. Israel’s claims for 1967 and 1982, and the Soviet press’s counter-claim for 1982, are given with the side that makes them. The findings on barrel bombs and chemical weapons in the civil war are those of the UN Commission of Inquiry, the OPCW and Human Rights Watch, and the former government’s denials are recorded. Where a consolidated sortie or loss figure exists in the official record it is given here; where accounts disagree, the range is shown and the disagreement named. Blank cells are blank because no figure could be verified, not because the fighting was small.
From the 1948 war with Israel to the clashes in western Syria in 2025.
| Conflict | Years | Against | Main aircraft | Sorties | Aircraft lost | |
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| The 1948 Arab-Israeli WarPalestineSyrian Air Force | 1948–1949 | Israel | T-6 Harvard | — | 1 | |
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Flew T-6 Harvards in support of the Syrian army. The air force was months old when it went to war. Its combat equipment was a handful of North American T-6 Harvards, armed trainers organised into three squadrons, flying alongside the Syrian army on the northern front. According to Wikipedia’s history of the service, it claimed its only aerial victory of the war on 10 July 1948, when the rear gunner of a Harvard shot down an Israeli fighter, and it lost one T-6 to ground fire. The war showed how little an air arm without fighters or trained crews could do, and drove successive Syrian governments to buy Fiat G.55 and G.59 fighters from Italy during and immediately after the fighting, and then Spitfires and Meteors from Britain. Outcome Armistice agreement between Israel and Syria in July 1949. The 10 July claim is Syria’s; the Israeli aircraft type and crew were not confirmed in the sources checked.
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| The Suez CrisisCanberra shot down over SyriaSyrian Air Force | 1956 | United Kingdom, France and Israel | MiG-15bis, MiG-15UTI, Meteor F.8 | — | 21 | |
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Syrian MiG-15s were in Egypt when Britain and France attacked; Syrian Meteors defended Syrian airspace. Syria’s first MiG-15s, bought from Czechoslovakia in 1955, were in Egypt by October 1956, apparently for training. When British and French aircraft attacked Egyptian airfields, 20 Syrian MiG-15bis and one MiG-15UTI were destroyed at Abu Suweir; three two-seaters were flown out to Syria by way of Saudi Arabia and Jordan. At home, Syrian Meteors of No. 9 Squadron shot down a Royal Air Force Canberra PR.7 reconnaissance aircraft on 6 November 1956, according to Wikipedia’s history of the service. The losses sped the shift to Soviet equipment: sixty MiG-17s were ordered at the end of 1956. Outcome British and French forces withdrew from Egypt under international pressure. The Canberra shoot-down is reported by Wikipedia; the RAF crew’s fate and the precise location were not confirmed in the sources checked.
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| The Six-Day WarJune 1967Syrian Air Force | 1967 | Israel | MiG-21, MiG-17 | — | — | |
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Flew a few strikes on northern Israel on 5 June before Israeli attacks on its bases. On the morning of 5 June 1967 Israel destroyed most of the Egyptian air force on the ground. When Syria, Jordan and Iraq struck back, their raids were, in Wikipedia’s summary, largely ineffectual. In its third wave, around midday, the Israeli air force flew 67 sorties against Syria; by the count in Wikipedia’s article on Operation Focus, 61 Syrian aircraft were destroyed, two of them in dogfights. Wikipedia’s history of the Syrian Air Force puts the emphasis elsewhere: after a few strikes on the first day, it says, the force was dispersed to remote bases and so avoided the scale of destruction suffered by Egypt and Jordan. The two accounts are not easily reconciled and are given here side by side. The air force’s commander at the time was Hafez al-Assad, by then also Minister of Defence. Outcome Israel captured the Golan Heights. Loss figures are from Israeli-derived accounts summarised by Wikipedia; no Syrian figure was found.
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| The October War (Yom Kippur War)1973Syrian Air Force | 1973 | Israel | MiG-21M/MF, MiG-17, Su-7 | — | — | |
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Supported the Syrian offensive on the Golan Heights and defended Syrian airspace. Syria went to war on 6 October 1973 with a rebuilt air force: under an agreement of May 1973 the Soviet Union delivered more than 100 MiG-21M/MFs by the end of the year. Wikipedia’s history records that the air force suffered extensive losses in air combat as the war went on, prompting a Soviet air bridge to Aleppo and Damascus from 9 October that at first brought only MiG-17s and MiG-21s as replacements. The ground-based air defences, a separate arm, did much of the work against Israeli aircraft over the Golan. The first MiG-23s followed in April 1974. Reliable loss figures for the Syrian air force in this war, and each side’s claims, were not found in the sources reached and are left out. Outcome Ceasefire in October 1973; disengagement agreement with Israel signed in 1974. Aircraft loss and kill claims for the Syrian front are UNVERIFIED and omitted. |
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| The 1982 Lebanon Warthe Bekaa Valley air battlesSyrian Arab Air Force | 1982 | Israel | MiG-21, MiG-23, Su-20/22and 1 more | — | — | |
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Fought the Israeli air force over Lebanon after Israel attacked Syrian missile batteries in the Bekaa. The air force entered the war weakened: its commander, Mamdouh Hamdi Abaza, had been assassinated in 1981, and a coup attempt in 1982 had led to purges. On 9 June 1982 Israel launched Operation Mole Cricket 19 against the Syrian missile batteries in the Bekaa Valley, using drones, airborne radar and electronic jamming; Israel says 29 of the 30 batteries were destroyed. Syrian MiG-21s and MiG-23s rose to fight in large numbers. Israel claims 82–86 Syrian aircraft were shot down that week by its F-15s and F-16s, with two F-15s damaged and no aircraft lost in air combat. The Soviet army newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda reported 67 Israeli aircraft downed, a figure Wikipedia notes was received with great scepticism even among Soviet officers. Syria said its Gazelle helicopters had been used successfully against Israeli armour. No independent count of Syrian losses was found in the sources checked. Outcome Ceasefire on 11 June 1982 between Israel and Syria. Every kill and loss figure here is a claim by one side: Israel’s (82–86) or the Soviet press’s (67 Israeli aircraft).
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| The Syrian civil warair campaign against opposition-held areasSyrian Arab Air Force | 2012–2024 | Syrian opposition groups and Islamic State | L-39, MiG-21, MiG-23and 5 more | — | — | |
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Bombed opposition-held areas, besieged towns and Islamic State forces with jets and helicopters, including barrel bombs; OPCW and UN investigators attributed chemical attacks to it. The air force entered the war on 22 March 2012 with armed Mi-8 and Mi-17 helicopters and on 24 July 2012 with L-39s, followed by MiG-21s, MiG-23s and Su-24s. Lacking precision weapons, it bombed from low and medium altitude with unguided munitions, and transport helicopters dropped barrel bombs, oil drums and gas cylinders packed with explosives. Human Rights Watch documented more than 650 major damage sites consistent with barrel bombs in opposition-held Aleppo in the 140 days after Security Council resolution 2139 of 22 February 2014; the Violations Documentation Center recorded 1,655 civilians killed by aerial attacks in Aleppo governorate in that period. The UN Commission of Inquiry found that in eastern Ghouta between 18 February and 11 March 2018 attacks killed more than 1,100 civilians, and characterised the bombardment as war crimes and the crime against humanity of inhumane acts. The Commission concluded the government carried out 33 chemical attacks between 2013 and September 2018. OPCW investigators found reasonable grounds to believe that Syrian Arab Air Force Su-22s from Shayrat dropped sarin on Ltamenah on 24 and 30 March 2017, that a helicopter dropped chlorine there on 25 March, and that air force helicopters dropped chlorine on Saraqib on 4 February 2018 and on Douma on 7 April 2018; the OPCW-UN JIM attributed the sarin attack on Khan Shaykhun on 4 April 2017 to the Syrian air force. The Assad government denied all chemical attacks and called Khan Shaykhun a fabrication; Russia called it staged. From 30 September 2015 Russia’s own air campaign, for which Airwars assesses 4,431–6,522 civilian deaths, turned the war. In September 2026 the new government began arresting former air force officers on charges of striking civilians. Outcome The Assad government fell on 8 December 2024. Findings are those of the bodies named (UN Commission of Inquiry, OPCW IIT, OPCW-UN JIM) and of HRW and Airwars; the former government rejected them. Casualty figures for air attacks overall are not given because no source reached offers a reliable total.
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| Clashes with Turkey, the United States and Israelshoot-downs and the Shayrat strikeSyrian Arab Air Force | 2013–2020 | Turkey, United States and Israel | Mi-17, MiG-23, Su-22and 2 more | — | 8 | |
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Lost aircraft to Turkish, US and Israeli fire while flying in the civil war; its Shayrat base was struck by the United States. Turkish F-16s shot down a Syrian Mi-17 near the border on 16 September 2013 and a MiG-23 on 23 March 2014, both for violating Turkish airspace according to Turkey. Israel shot down an Su-24 with a Patriot missile near the ceasefire line on 23 September 2014 and an Su-22 on 24 July 2018. On 7 April 2017, after the Khan Shaykhun attack, the US fired 59 Tomahawks at Shayrat, which the Pentagon said was used to store chemical weapons and aircraft; the US said about 20 aircraft were destroyed, the Russian Ministry of Defence said 23 missiles hit and six aircraft were destroyed, and Syrian jets flew from the base again within hours. On 18 June 2017 a US Navy F/A-18E shot down a Syrian Su-22 that, according to the US, had bombed near US-backed forces south of Tabqa. After an air attack killed 33 Turkish soldiers at Balyun on 27 February 2020, Turkish F-16s shot down two Su-24s on 1 March 2020, whose four pilots ejected, and an L-39 on 3 March. Outcome A Turkish-Russian ceasefire in Idlib took effect on 6 March 2020. Circumstances of each shoot-down are as stated by the shooting side; Syria disputed several, including the 2014 Turkish account.
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| The fall of the Assad government and the Israeli strikesOperation Bashan ArrowSyrian Arab Air Force | 2024 | Syrian opposition forces and Israel | Whole inventory | — | — | |
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Flew strikes against the opposition offensive until the last days; did not resist the Israeli strikes that followed the government’s fall. The offensive that ended the Assad government began on 27 November 2024. The UN Commission of Inquiry reports that pro-government forces kept up air strikes, artillery and drone attacks on densely populated areas until the very last days. On 8 December Bashar al-Assad left for Moscow from the coast, where Russia’s Hmeimim base shares a runway with Latakia airport, and the army command told its soldiers they were no longer in service. Within hours Israel began what a senior Israeli security source called the largest operation in its air force’s history. The IDF said it carried out more than 480 strikes in 48 hours, about 350 of them on airfields, air defences, aircraft, drones, missiles and weapons production sites, and destroyed 70–80 per cent of the former government’s strategic weapons; the UN Commission counted more than 350 strikes on military facilities, equipment and supplies between 8 and 17 December. Israel said the aim was to keep weapons from armed groups, and the US State Department described the operations as temporary; the UN Secretary-General, the Arab League, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and others condemned them as violations of international law and of the 1974 disengagement agreement. The new Syrian leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, condemned them but said Syria was not in a position to be drawn into another war. Outcome The former air force ceased to exist as an organised force; a new one is being built under the transitional government. Destruction figures are Israeli claims reported by Wikipedia; the UN figure counts strikes, not aircraft destroyed.
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| Clashes in western SyriaMarch 2025Syrian Air Force | 2025 | Armed groups loyal to the former government | Mi-24, Mi-8/17 | — | — | |
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Helicopters of the reconstituted air force were used in operations against armed groups loyal to the former government. In March 2025 fighting broke out on the Syrian coast between government forces and armed groups loyal to the former government. According to Militarnyi, as cited by Wikipedia, the new air force used helicopters, and at least one Mi-24 was filmed engaging targets. The clashes were accompanied by mass killings: the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that security forces were involved in the killing of more than 750 Alawite civilians, according to Wikipedia’s summary. The government set up its own investigation. No source reached attributes particular civilian deaths to air force helicopters, and none is attributed here. Outcome Government forces regained control of the coast; the violence against civilians is the subject of investigations. The air force’s role rests on one specialist outlet cited by Wikipedia; the civilian death figure is SOHR’s. |
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Nothing matches that search.
Every figure, checked
- UN Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic: report A/HRC/58/66 (14 March 2025)Fall of the government on 8 December 2024; air strikes by pro-government forces until the last days (para. 15); more than 350 Israeli strikes 8–17 December 2024 (para. 27).
- UN Commission of Inquiry: The siege and recapture of eastern Ghouta, A/HRC/38/CRP.3 (20 June 2018)Su-22, Su-24 and Mi-8/17 aircraft (para. 16); over 1,100 civilians killed 18 February–11 March 2018; war crimes and crime against humanity findings (paras. 71–72).
- OHCHR: Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab RepublicEstablished 22 August 2011 by Human Rights Council resolution S-17/1; mandate.
- OHCHR: Commission of Inquiry on Syria – documentationReport index: A/HRC/34/64 (Aleppo, 2017), A/HRC/36/55 (chemical weapons, 2017), A/HRC/37/72 (2018).
- OPCW: OPCW releases first report by Investigation and Identification Team (8 April 2020)Ltamenah 24, 25 and 30 March 2017: Su-22s of the 50th Brigade, 22nd Air Division, from Shayrat (sarin); helicopter from Hama (chlorine); perpetrators individuals of the Syrian Arab Air Force.
- OPCW: OPCW releases second report by Investigation and Identification Team (12 April 2021)Saraqib, 4 February 2018: a Syrian Arab Air Force helicopter under the control of the Tiger Forces dropped a chlorine cylinder; 12 people affected.
- OPCW: OPCW releases third report by Investigation and Identification Team (27 January 2023)Douma, 7 April 2018: chlorine cylinders dropped by helicopter; 43 named individuals killed; Syrian Arab Air Force the perpetrators.
- Human Rights Watch: Syria: Barrage of Barrel Bombs (30 July 2014)Over 650 damage sites consistent with barrel bombs in Aleppo in 140 days after resolution 2139; dropped by government helicopters; VDC figure of 1,655 civilians killed.
- Syrian Network for Human Rights: Between Pain and Agony – 12 Years of Chemical Weapons Crimes in Syria (29 November 2024)At least 1,514 people killed in chemical attacks in Syria, per SNHR.
- Airwars: Russian military in SyriaRussian campaign from 30 September 2015; 4,993 alleged incidents; 4,431–6,522 civilian deaths assessed as fair or confirmed.
- US Department of Defense: Statement from Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis on U.S. strike in Syria (6 April 2017)59 Tomahawks against aircraft, shelters, fuel, ammunition, air defences and radars at Shayrat.
- Al Jazeera: Syria arrests five former al-Assad-era officers over strikes on civilians (18 September 2026)Five former air force officers arrested in Tartous; nine former pilots arrested earlier in September 2026.
Figures verified 2026-10-01. Back to the Syrian Air Force.