rudel.dietrich

A Syrian weapons company for all intents and purposes has no clear formation. But here is some of what I have found. The CO squad is usualy along the lines of a normal infantry squad. 9 men, all with rifles except the LMG gunner. It also seems that a RPG-7V is given to this squad. The funtion of this squad is CC with the rest of the weapons and cordination with the batallion it is supporting. Here is where things gets hazy. There are it seems three main weapons groups that a support company contains. Crew served machine guns ATGMs Man portable SAMs Janes seems to indicate that a weapons comapany has... One command squad (like I listed above) Two three man ATGM teams. Usualy AT-3 or AT-4 types. Can also be Milan, AT-13 or AT-14 types. All three carry AKM rifles. Probably with half loads of ammunition. It also seems that they carry a RPG-7V... Not sure how reliable that is but I guess it makes sense in a defensive role or for fire support which is one of the functions of the support squad. Ammo seems to be around 4 missles. Janes also lists that the company has three two man SAM teams. Mostly with old SA-7s or newer SA-14s One man carries an AKM with a half load of ammo. SAM rounds are 3-4. Some brand new SA-16s have been reported. To sum that up, Janes lists. Command squad ATGM Team x2 Infantry Sam team x3 Now to the machine guns... Only a few sources listed these. And most had them with the 2nd line infantry support companies. It does not seem that 1st line Syrian units have crew served machine guns. The models listed were the 7.62mm PKMS MMG and the 12.7mm NSV HMG. Since most of the game will have the Syrians on the defensive, it would seem to me that crew served machine guns would need to be added to support companies. All machine guns serve in sections of two guns. The PKMS section has a crew of 6 and the NSV section has a crew of 8. I could not find any good info on how much ammo machine gun crews carry. Since each section has two guns I would not think it would be much. I guess the guns are intended to be mobile which makes it odd that only second line units would have them (units that would probably be in static defense) I will do more digging in this area. [ August 31, 2006, 09:02 PM: Message edited by: rudel.dietrich ]

I also want to apologize in advance for any of my English mistakes

Infantry My main effort right now is infantry, once I have that down to my or BFs satisfaction I will move on to something else. I guess we should start with the basic Syrian army infantry company. The backbone of any army. A Syrian Infantry company for the most part is made up of ten nine man squads. The first squad contains the company commander and the XO and then 7 others. As far as I can tell the squad is armed the same as the other squads. The only omission seems to be that the company HQ squad has no RPG gunner, instead someone hauls around a radio. The rest of the company is split into three platoons of three sqauds each. Most are armed in this fashion Everyone except the squad LMG gunner carries a AK-47. Also everyone carries 2-3 grenades (I could not find any specific type, I don't guess it matters in game terms). There is a squad LMG gunner and his assistant. THe LMG is a 7.62mm RPK saw. A few sources I read seem to indicate that often times the squad leader is the gunners assitant. Not sure about that one. One major point of contention is how many RPGs are carried in a platoon. One source indicated two per platoon while others indicated it was one per squad in every squad but the company command squad. One point of agreement is that almost every RPG is the RPG-7V type. It seems 1-2 HE warheads are carried and 3 AP warheads. Tandem warheads are commonplace even in the basic Syrian army. I only found one source of how much rifle ammo is carried. It said three additional magazines are carried and 90 loose rounds. I would not count that as very reliable. The LMG gunner and his assistant carry 3 each 75 round drums. I found that from two sources. One piece of interesting information is that the squad does not use fireteams. I assume that level of coridination and control just does not exsist in 'third world' armies. Is that commonplace? Next up I will share my findings on a heavy weapons support company. [ August 31, 2006, 09:17 PM: Message edited by: rudel.dietrich ]

As promised in the other thread, I have started looking into how Syrian units are organized and equiped and in what numbers. I have access to most Janes publications (I have my own account...woo-hoo!)as well as a few other sources. Well im sorry to say that information is still hard to come by. Or I should say that reliable information is hard to come by. Some of the sources just list ranges for amount of hardware that Syria posesses and much of what I have seen is contradictory. Anyways, here are my preliminary findings. Hopefully some of which will be usefull. [ August 31, 2006, 09:01 PM: Message edited by: rudel.dietrich ]

I will see what I can do. I feel bad however perhaps having so much influence on a game that so many will play! I will try and pass on as accurate information as I can and leave out what is even slighty unconfirmed

Looks like 40mm grenades... Maybe close in self defense?

Define what you need and I will dig into it and ask around the office. The ME is not the area I work in so I have to borrow and ask my way to the info I get.

The sources I have at work say that a deal has been worked out but since the Syrians are in so much debt that no deliveries have been made. They do say however that a platoon of T-80U tanks have been delivered for evaluation/training purposes. That is reliable human intelligence. Also my sources say that Syria have received 'well under' 15,000 AK-74s of all types. Most of those have gone to special forces units and heavy weapons crews and only 1 mech division have been outfitted with the new weapon. It says that the 5.45mm RPK LMG is not in widespread services besides with the speical forces units and guards and paratrooper units. The 7.62mm RPK LMG is still the main squad based LMG. I hope from Steves post that they do not make the mistake (at least according to my sources) of making the AK-74 the primary Sytian rifles. By my accounts only three small sections of the Syrian military use that rifle Special forces Guards units Paratroopers Heavy weapons units BY and large the AK-47 is still main battle rifle of the Syrian military. Interestingly enough the main battle rifle of Hezbolah sqauds besides the AK-47 is the H&K G3 I hope this is modeled in the game.

We tried twice and neither time went all that well. And I sort of like being friends. We can now heckle the French together over a nice pint of some dark ale

That always hits a nerve with the British. I was making a joke. I meant nothing by it. As was mentioned before, a few tankers stopping for tea hardly doomed a plan that was doomed before it even began.

Only for the most critical of tasks, like coming to the aid of the 1st airborne division.

I was thinking about that WEGO concept and long battles, as well as thinking about people who might not like real time battles. Are you able to change from real time to WEGO in the middle of a battle? I hope so If not, maybe it could be made where if the forces are not in contact the game simply plays in real time mode until contact is made and then it drops back into WEGO mode

Is there a turn limit? Can we have an afternoon long battle if we wish?

I know it is very poltical, but I do not think a military solution exists in Iraq. As long as you have fresh bodies to replace what is lost than no matter what tactics you use they will never be entirely effective.

They were testing the Puma right as I left the BW. Very exciting project and probably the best APC in the world.

I think the problem is misconceptions about just what APC's are supossed to do. They were designed as a way to move men and equipment quickly around the battlefield and keep them safe in transit. They were never intended to support that infantry or fight by themselves. But some commanders decided to stretch the concept to places it was never intended to go. In CM:SF I plan on using my M1125s as fast mobile transportation. They will transport and supply my infantry but nothing else, they will defend themselves in attacked but will not support offensive operations.

I don't really get this either, the LRDG was really like a modern day cavlary outfit. They were usefull in disrupting an enemies line of communications and severing supply lines. The enemy in Iraq has neither of those things. What exactly is the object? To rove around for the purpose of collecting a nice body count? That sounds ALOT like another war 40 some years ago that I will not name.

That is pretty much what I was thinking of. As well and wind changes and cloud cover changes.

I think I know what the answer is before I even post it, but I cant help myself Will light and weather be dynamic? Say you start a scenario at around 18:00 and it is a 90 turn game. Will the sun sink behind the western horizen and shadows lengthen and visibility decrease? I know the game is set up for short engagements. But even an engagement of just 30 turns would see some light change if it was fought at dawn or dusk. Same thing for weather, will we see it change in the course of a scenario?

Or that they were wiped out due to counter battary fire.

I have read that you can play blue vs blue battles. How about red vs red battles? In the 'backstory' I have read about the game it seems very plausiable for a civil war to have erupted before the goverment fell. Red vs Red would allow us to create these sort of battles. And how about Syrian forces that are trained by the US or loyal to the old goverment? Can US forces fight beside Syrian forces? That would allow some very interesting scenarios in which a small US force must assist a much larger and technicly inferior Syrian force.

I wonder if the Syrian T-12 can fire ATGMs like the Soviet one could. I also wonder if they have any of the 125mm AT guns the Soviets introduced in the early 90s. I cannot think of the designation off the top of my head.

My sources say that Syria still fields a few of the old 100mm BS-3 guns. They field 'well over 400' of the much newer and much better but still outdated Soviet 100mm T-12 guns. For their army reserve (and if things do indeed get desperate) they can pull out the 85mm D-44 gun. Their airborne forces have a 57mm ATG avaliable but I doubt they would ever use it and I do not think the Syrians have the capability to even air deoploy their 'airborne' forces. I would expect the BS-3 and T-12 to be in the game and possibly the D-44 Problem with ATG these days what Oren mentioned. You can engage them from extreme distance once they are found, and infantry can knock them out very easily with an ATGM which also outranges them. Problem is spotting them. Fortunatly the T-12 is a massive weapon and probably could not be put into a house unless some serious work was done to gut said house. [ August 21, 2006, 06:32 PM: Message edited by: rudel.dietrich ]

The TO&Es I have seen on modern US Mech infantry is that a M136 LAW is carried with every squad.

The trick will be to even hit the US player before they hit you.