Khmeimim Air Base
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Khmeimim Air Base (
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
: Хмеймим), also Hmeimim Air Base, is a Syrian airbase currently operated by
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
, located south-east of the city of Latakia in Hmeimim,
Latakia Governorate Latakia Governorate, also transliterated as Ladhakia Governorate, ( ar, مُحافظة اللاذقية / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat al-Lādhiqīyah'') is one of the 14 governorates of Syria. It is situated in western Syria, bordering Turkey's Hata ...
, Syria. The airbase shares some airfield facilities with
Bassel Al-Assad International Airport Bassel al-Assad International Airport ( ar, مطار باسل الأسد الدولي) is an airport serving Latakia, the principal port city of Syria. The airport is named for Bassel al-Assad (1962–1994), son of former Syrian President Haf ...
. The legal status of the base is regulated by a treaty Russia and Syria signed in August 2015. At the end of 2017, Russia said it had decided to turn the Khmeimim base into a component of its permanent military contingent stationed in Syria.


Name

The Russian name of the air base "" has been
transliterated Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...
also in other ways, namely Hemeimeem, Hmeymin, all based on the local Arabic name, — .


History and current legal status

Khmeimim air base was built in mid-2015 adjacent to the
Bassel Al-Assad International Airport Bassel al-Assad International Airport ( ar, مطار باسل الأسد الدولي) is an airport serving Latakia, the principal port city of Syria. The airport is named for Bassel al-Assad (1962–1994), son of former Syrian President Haf ...
to serve as "the strategic center of
Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War {{Infobox military conflict , partof = the foreign involvement in the Syrian civil war, and the military intervention against ISIL , image = , image_size = , border = , caption = To ...
". The existence of the Russian strategic base was revealed by the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
in early September and American officials expressed concern over the possibility of escalation of the conflict in Syria. The airbase became operational on 30 September 2015. On 26 August 2015, in Damascus, Russia and Syria signed a treaty, effective forthwith, that stipulates terms and conditions of use by Russia of Syria's Khemim Airport, free of charge and with no time limit. The treaty, ratified by Russia's parliament and signed into law by president
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
in October 2016, grants Russia's personnel and their family members jurisdictional immunity and other privileges as envisaged by
Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 is an international treaty that defines a framework for diplomatic relations between independent countries. Its aim is to facilitate "the development of friendly relations" among government ...
. The Syrian military is in charge of protecting the base perimeter, while the Russian side is responsible for air defense and internal policing of base personnel. The treaty was amended by signing a protocol to the treaty on 18 January 2017. In late December 2017, Russia announced it had set about "forming a permanent grouping" at Khmeimim as well as at its naval facility in Tartus, after president Putin approved the structure and the personnel strength of the Tartus and Hmeymim bases.Россия начала формировать постоянную группировку в Тартусе и Хмеймиме
TASS, 26 December 2017.


Operation

Within several months in 2015 new infrastructure was built: air-conditioned accommodation for approximately 1,000 people, an air traffic control tower, runway extensions, storage facilities, field kitchens, and refuelling stations. Supplies were flown in from Russia or shipped via
Tartus ) , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_caption = Tartus corniche  Port of Tartus • Tartus beach and boulevard  Cathedral of Our Lady of Tortosa • Al-Assad Stadium&n ...
harbour away. The base is reported to be capable of handling
Antonov An-124 Ruslan The Antonov An-124 Ruslan (; russian: Антонов Ан-124 Руслан, , Ruslan; NATO reporting name: Condor) is a large, strategic airlift, four-engined aircraft that was designed in the 1980s by the Antonov design bureau in the Ukrain ...
and Ilyushin Il-76M transport aircraft; the deployed aircraft included Sukhoi Su-24Ms, Sukhoi Su-25s, and Sukhoi Su-34s, reconnaissance aircraft Il-20M as well as
T-90 The T-90 is a third-generation Russian main battle tank. It uses a 125mm 2A46 smoothbore main gun, the 1A45T fire-control system, an upgraded engine, and gunner's thermal sight. Standard protective measures include a blend of steel and comp ...
tanks, BTR-82 vehicles, artillery, with
Mil Mi-24 The Mil Mi-24 (russian: Миль Ми-24; NATO reporting name: Hind) is a large helicopter gunship, attack helicopter and low-capacity troop transport with room for eight passengers. It is produced by Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant and has been ...
,
Mi-28 The Mil Mi-28 (NATO reporting name "Havoc") is a Russian all-weather, day-night, military tandem, two-seat anti-armor attack helicopter. It is an attack helicopter with no intended secondary transport capability, better optimized than the Mil M ...
,
Ka-52 The Kamov Ka-50 "Black Shark" (russian: Чёрная акула, translit=Chyornaya akula, English: kitefin shark, NATO reporting name: Hokum A) is a Soviet/Russian single-seat attack helicopter with the distinctive coaxial rotor system of th ...
gunships and Mil Mi-8 support helicopters. After the 24 November 2015 shootdown of a Su-24M, a
S-400 The S-400 Triumf (russian: link=no, C-400 Триумф – Triumf; translation: Triumph; NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler), previously known as the S-300 PMU-3, is a mobile, surface-to-air missile (SAM) system developed in the 1990s by Russ ...
defensive missile system was installed, allowing Russia to defend the air space from Southern Turkey to Northern Israel. At the end of January 2016, Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets started to be deployed. In February 2016, one Tupolev Tu-214R was reported to have been deployed. At the end of February 2016 and in response to developments at the
Geneva peace talks , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; ...
, a truce coordination center had been established at the airbase to coordinate activities of warring parties and "render maximum assistance" to all parties participating in recent ceasefire agreements; the center will not support
ISIL An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
, Al-Nusra, and terrorist groups so designated by the
UN Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the Organs of the United Nations, six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international security, international peace and security, recommending the admi ...
. The Sixth Directorate of the Russian
GRU The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, rus, Гла́вное управле́ние Генера́льного шта́ба Вооружённых сил Росси́йской Федера́ци ...
reportedly operated a signals intelligence station by the airport. In 2018 RT reported on a large-scale renovation at the airport. This included the construction of a second landing strip, hangars to shelter planes from drone attacks and the sun, and a centralized fuel system to speed up refueling. With the demise of opposing forces, Russian pilots were said to perform mainly training sessions having at hand 30 aircraft consisting of Su-35S, Su-34 and Su-24 planes and Mi-35 and Mi-8AMTSh helicopters. In 2021, both Tu-22M3 ''Backfire'' long-range bombers and Su-35 fighters operating from the base were reported engaged in training flights over the eastern Mediterranean.


Major incidents

In November 2016, after the Russian aircraft carrier '' Admiral Kuznetsov'' lost a MiG-29K fighter due to arrestor cable problems, satellite images indicated that at least some of the carrier's air wing of MiG-29K and
Sukhoi Su-33 The Sukhoi Su-33 (russian: Сухой Су-33; NATO reporting name: ''Flanker-D'') is an all-weather carrier-based twin-engine air superiority fighter designed by Sukhoi and manufactured by Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association ...
aircraft had been deployed to Khmeimim. On 3 January 2018, the ''
Kommersant ''Kommersant'' (russian: Коммерсантъ, , ''The Businessman'' or Commerce Man, often shortened to Ъ) is a nationally distributed daily newspaper published in Russia mostly devoted to politics and business. The TNS Media and NRS Russia ...
'' reported that rebel shelling on 31 December 2017 caused the deaths of 2 Russian military personnel and the loss of at least seven aircraft stationed on the base; the Russian MoD on 4 January 2018 acknowledged that the attack occurred and confirmed that two servicemen had been killed, but denied that any jets had been disabled. According to Roman Saponkov, a Russian military journalist who posted photographs of the aftermath of the attack on the same day that the Russian MoD published its statement, no aircraft were destroyed in the attack, but ten were damaged. An article on /Drive said that key questions about the attack were still unanswered despite the Russian MoD's communique. On 12 January 2018, the Russian MoD announced the military had eliminated the group of militants that shelled the Khmeimim airbase, close to the western border of Idlib province in a special operation. Furthermore, a terrorist drone assembly and storage depot was destroyed as well in the Syrian province of Idlib. A Krasnopol precision projectile were used in both the strikes. On 6 March 2018, a Russian Antonov An-26 transport plane
crash Crash or CRASH may refer to: Common meanings * Collision, an impact between two or more objects * Crash (computing), a condition where a program ceases to respond * Cardiac arrest, a medical condition in which the heart stops beating * Couch su ...
during an attempted landing at the airbase killed all 39 military personnel on board. The Russian MoD said that the plane was not fired upon and preliminary data suggested that a technical malfunction had caused the crash. On September 19, 2018, a Russian Ilyushin Il-20 plane that was coming in to land was hit by Syrian air defense in a friendly fire incident.Syria accidentally shot down Russian military plane, Kremlin admits
/ref> The Syrians were trying to target Israeli aircraft. The Russian Defense Ministry said that four Israeli F-16 fighter jets had attacked targets in Syria's Latakia after approaching from the Mediterranean. The Israeli warplanes had approached at a low altitude and “created a dangerous situation for other aircraft and vessels in the region.” “The Israeli pilots used the Russian plane as cover and set it up to be targeted by the Syrian air defense forces. As a consequence, the Il-20, which has radar cross-section much larger than the F-16, was shot down by an S-200 system missile,” the statement said, adding that 15 Russian military service members have died as a result.


Drone attacks

On 6 January 2018, Russian forces thwarted a
drone Drone most commonly refers to: * Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg * Unmanned aerial vehicle * Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft * Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to: ...
(UAV) swarm attack on the base, the first of this kind in the history of warfare. Statements from Russia's MoD on 8 and 10 January confirmed earlier reports about the incident, saying that the attempted attack that involved 13 armed, fixed-wing drones which were used to attack both the Hmeimim base and the Tartus naval facility on 5—6 January was repulsed by the Russian forces' radio-electronic warfare technologies; it also refuted earlier reports that a greater number of UAVs were involved in the attack and alleged that the drones could have been obtained only from a country that possessed "high-tech capabilities for providing satellite navigation and remote control." Referring to the 6 January swarm attack on 25 October, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Colonel General Alexander Fomin stated that "Thirteen drones moved according to common combat battle deployment, operated by a single crew. During all this time the American Poseidon-8 reconnaissance plane patrolled the Mediterranean Sea area for eight hours," according to the TASS article which provided details on the operation and how the Poseidon managed the attack and the drones were switched from autonomous to manual control. Further analysis was provided by Editor-in-Chief of National Defense journal Igor Korotchenko stating "There were three such goals: uncovering the Russian air defense system in Syria, carrying out radio-electronic reconnaissance and inflicting actual harm to our servicemen in Syria," in a 2nd TASS article providing further information on the Russian analysis of the attack and the Russian official belief that it was a Pentagon operation. The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed the Deputy Defence Minister's claim. In a statement to Military Times the Pentagon said “Any suggestion that U.S. or coalition forces played a role in an attack on a Russian base is without any basis in fact and is utterly irresponsible,” in an article covering the likelihood of the Russian claims. On 24 April, the airbase was targeted by another wave of drones in a swarm attack. Russian forces reported they had intercepted and destroyed several "small-size unidentified airborne targets" while they approached the base. On 30 June, Russian air defences repelled another drone attack on the base, shooting down multiple unidentified unmanned aerial vehicles. During July and August 2018, the airbase was targeted by multiple drone attacks, all were repelled. In August 2018, a total of 47 drones had been shot down by Russian air defenses. 50 drones were shot down in September–October 2018. Three more attacks occurred in August 2019. Air defense and electronic warfare systems deployed at Russia's Hmeymim air base in Syria have shot down or disabled over 100 drones during terrorists’ attempted attacks on the military facility over the past two years, Defense Ministry Spokesman Major-General
Igor Konashenkov Lieutenant General Igor Yevgenyevich Konashenkov (russian: Игорь Евгеньевич Конашенков; born 15 May 1966) is a Russian military officer serving as the chief spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federa ...
said on September 27, 2019. On January 19, February 3 and 11, June 22 and July 11, 2020, and also on September 27, 2021 Russian air defense systems repelled drone attacks.


Reactions

At the end of September 2015, NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe, General Philip Breedlove, said that the kind of military infrastructure that Russia had installed in Syria, which included anti-aircraft defence systems, was a de facto no-fly zone: "As we see the very capable air defense ystemsbeginning to show up in Syria, we're a little worried about another A2/AD nti-access/area denialbubble being created in the eastern Mediterranean." (Russia's third denial zone around Europe)


References


External links


Russian Aerospace Forces: Photo Gallery
{{authority control Buildings and structures in Latakia Governorate Latakia Governorate in the Syrian civil war Russian Air Force bases Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and Russia Russia–Syria relations Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war Military installations of Russia in Syria