Shaheen's Secret... The Drone That Decided the Battle of the Opposition Factions in Syria

With the launch of the Military Operations Department of Operation “Deterrence of Aggression” on November 27, 2024 - which led 12 days later to the fall of the Assad regime and the control of the rebels over all Syrian provinces - an effective weapon appeared in the battle that played a decisive role in its results: the Shaheen drones.

Since the first days of the battle, the Military Operations Department has published several video clips of its targeting of military vehicles and gatherings of Syrian regime soldiers with the Shaheen drone, which showed great effectiveness and accuracy in hitting targets, in addition to what it broadcasted about the use of these drones in monitoring and surveillance operations, and dropping warning and threatening leaflets to regime soldiers.

It also published an issue about the "Shaheen Brigades", which specializes in drones, and the revolution supporters are now anticipating the video clips it records before hitting the target. What are the most prominent of these drones? How were you able to develop them? And how did they affect the course of the battle?

First signs

In December 2017, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that its two military bases at Hmeimim Airport in the Latakia countryside and in Tartus had been attacked with shells, killing two soldiers and damaging a number of aircraft. It was later revealed that the attack was carried out by drones from armed opposition factions.

The ministry indicated that its forces were able to shoot down 7 drones and control 6 others with the help of electronic warfare devices.

Following this, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said that combating the threat of terrorist attacks using drones requires the cooperation of all parties concerned at the international level.

The Russian Ministry of Defense also published a photo of one of the captured aircraft, saying, "This is the first time that opposition factions have targeted Russian bases with drones." The photo showed a winged aircraft carrying 4 bombs on each wing.

The bases in Hmeimim and Tartus were subjected to several other drone attacks, and the Russian Ministry of Defense issued statements about their downing, indicating that they did not cause any damage, until the Military Operations Department announced during the “Deterrence of Aggression” battle the Shaheen Battalions, which specialize in drones. The videos it broadcasted showed the use of different types of drones, some launched manually and others from platforms. The drones ranged from models with 4 propellers to locally made ones equipped with ammunition such as bombs or shells.

winged aircraft

Similar to the plane whose photo was published by the Russian Ministry of Defense with improvements, there have been planes made of cheap materials and guided by the Global Positioning System (GPS) that can carry up to 18 small bombs, or a warhead weighing more than 30 kilograms, some of which are designed for long-range flights and are equipped with a fuel tank.

The clips published by the Operations Management Room showed two types of winged aircraft. The first type requires manual launch, has a propeller engine, and is equipped with cameras that transmit the image directly.

According to the videos, the aircraft resembles the Ukrainian FPV drones, which are suicide drones that target military vehicles and facilities, and can be loaded with explosive ammunition weighing up to 30 kilograms.

The second type is what is launched from platforms, which are also dive planes, and they are also equipped with anti-armor RPG shells. The Military Operations Department published videos of the moment it targeted military vehicles, the regime forces’ operations room in Masyaf, and Colonel Adi Ghassah’s car in the Hama countryside.

Quadcopters

They are similar to the commercial drones available in the market. The clips published by the "Military Operations Management" room showed versions of them that were larger than the known drones, which suggests that the rebels made modifications to these drones. They were used for three missions: the first is photography and reconnaissance, the second is dropping small bombs on groups and individuals, and the third is dropping leaflets.

The Joint Operations Management Room published several videos showing the moment the leaflets were dropped on the locations of the regime soldiers, with a message calling on them to defect, and containing instructions they can follow to preserve their lives.

The ability of these aircraft to fly vertically, thanks to the presence of four propellers, contributes to the success of their missions of dropping leaflets or small bombs, but their relatively small size makes them unable to carry large weights.

ZOAM winged missile

In November 2023, the Syrian regime forces published photos that they said were of a missile launched by armed opposition factions at the Jorin area in the Ghab Plain in the western Hama countryside.

The images show a drone with a 6-meter wingspan, a 4-meter-long jet engine, carrying 100 kilograms of explosives, and being controlled remotely, making it more like a ground-launched glide bomb that technically works in the same way as a cruise missile.

Since 2021, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has published photos of large, locally-made missiles called “Zouam” with a caliber of 240 mm, which are derived from the Soviet “M-24 FUD” missile, until the regime forces published photos from Jurin, which show that the missile was modified by adding wings and a jet engine, which turned it into a drone with a high explosive load.

Unlike traditional propeller-powered drones, jet-powered models are capable of carrying more advanced payloads and achieving higher speeds, making them harder to intercept by traditional defense systems such as surface-to-air missiles and radar.

On the first day of the “Deterrence of Aggression” battle on November 27, the “Military Operations Management Room” published a video clip of what it said was a “Zouam” remote-controlled missile targeting the headquarters of the 46th Regiment in the western Aleppo countryside, before it took control of it. Due to the large size of the missile, activists initially circulated the clip as showing the downing of a regime forces plane, before other identities published a correction to the information.

It later published a video clip showing details of targeting the military academy in the city of Aleppo with a guided missile, starting from preparing the missile, launching it and heading it until the moment it reached its target and exploded.

Russian accusation against Ukraine

In turn, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the armed opposition began using drones since mid-2016 for reconnaissance purposes, and the targeting at the end of 2017 was the first military use of drones.

“The Ukrainians taught us about aircraft mechanics, bomb carriers and 3D printing,” he said, while another brigade leader, Abu Mazen, said Ukrainian training played a key role in developing drone signal transmission and targeting systems that enhanced the drones’ range and operational efficiency by solving power and signaling issues.

The Shaheen Brigades, with the various types of drones they used in the "Deterrence of Aggression" battle, contributed to achieving a kind of balance in the air force, in addition to the important role of the Russians withdrawing the largest number of their air arsenal from Syria due to their preoccupation with the war in Ukraine.

Drones have decided a number of battles, and perhaps stopped others. For example, the city of Hama fell into the hands of opposition militants without resistance from regime forces. A suicide drone belonging to the battalions had targeted the regime forces’ operations room in the city of Masyaf just days before the “Operations Room Administration” took control of the city.

Today, as the regime in Syria has fallen and the capital Damascus is in the hands of the opposition, a file with more details about the drone file and the mechanism for developing it may appear soon.

Source: Al Jazeera