MiG-23MLD - Syria - 1989
Lebanon War 1989

The beginning of the MiG-23 saga in the service of the SyAAF unfolds in the final days of the October War (1973). Two MiG-23Ms and two MiG-23UB two-seaters were shipped to Syria in crates on the 14th October 1973, but this was too late for them to take part in the ongoing conflict. The process of making the MiG-23 operational was complex and extremely difficult, mainly due to the poor manufacturing quality, unreliability of the aircraft and the lack of technical documentation (left out on purpose by the Soviets). By the end of the 1974, up to 13 Syrian MiG-23s had already been written off due to accidents. Iraq and Libya encountered similar difficulties and it took almost a decade for these countries to integrate and make the MiG-23 operational. By this time, the initially exported MiG-23 versions were hopelessly obsolete. Tom Cooper gives a great and meaningful insight of this whole transition period in his book "MiG-23 Flogger in the Middle East" (2018)

The first slighly improved MiG-23MFs were delivered to Syria only later in 1978 with the MiG-23MFs becoming in the mean time the backbone of the SyAAF interception missions.

The first major conflict in which the Syrian MiG-23s were involved was the Lebanon War (1982). The opening phase of the war presented on the 9th of June 1982 extensive clashes between the IDF and SyAAF with major battles in the Bekaa Valley. I briefly described these events in a previous project for whoever is curious: MiG-21MF - Syria - 1982 | Album by Redicus (1:72) .The violent air combat of June 1982 caused signifficant losses for Syria, with six MiG-23MFs, four MiG-23MSs and a few MiG-23BNs shot down, among several other dozens of MiG-21s. Further air losses in the months to come left the SyAAF crippled for future operations. Finally realising the severity of the situation, the Soviet goverment approved in September 1982 the sale of 50 MiG-23MLs and a further replacement batch of MiG-23BNs to Syria.

Due to the Soviets constantly cheating, lying and misleading their foreign export customers, the introduction of the MiG-23s in the Middle East was an extremely expensive and deadly failure especially for Iraq, Syria and Libya. Only the mass of negative experiences from the conflicts of the early 1980s from nearly all MiG-23 users from the Middle East prompted the USSR to export more advanced versions of the MiG-23. It was only in 1982 with the ML version that the Soviets finally delivered what they promised ten years before. What was strongly advertised as a single-engined F-14 by the Soviets in 1970 (especially towards Iraq), the MiG-23 could only now in 1982 become in some very specific circumstances competitive againts the Western technology of the 70s. All of later improved versions entered service much too late to change the type's stained reputation or the fate of their operating countries, with the MiG-23 becoming ever more obsolete in terms of electronics (avionics, radar and ECM).

It isn't entirely clear what exact MiG-23 versions Syria received in 1982, but a second and third batch included the more advanced MLDs (Izdelye 23-22B) with the serial numbers between 2762 - 2799. The new machines become operational in August 1983 just in time to take part in a new phase of the Lebanon War, during the gradual Israeli withdrawal from Beirut. Deadly attacks on the US and French MNF troops in Lebabon lead to further tense moments culminating with French and US air raids. Interception attempts were made by Syrian MiG-23s against a pair of F-14A flying a reconnaissance mission in December 1983. A further escalation happened on the 19th November 1985 as four Syrian MiG-23 MLs were sent to ambush a pair of Israeli F-15s over Lebanon. Due to the an error of the ground controller, two Syrian MiG-23s ended in front of the F-15s instead of behind them, being promptly shot down.

After the defection of Adel Bassem in 1989 with the most advanced MiG-23MLD version that even the USSR possesed, the ties between the USSR and Syria became very cold. The subsequent collapse of the USSR left Syria without even spare parts for their MiG-23s, leading to an almost complete stand still and hibernation of any SyAAF operations for almost 20 years. Plenty of shady details from this period of time are revealed in the book I mentioned in the first paragraph above.

Although the Syrian MiG-23 fleet was partially revived in 2008 by the purchase of 33 used MiG-23MLDs (in extremely poor condition) from Belarus, only a dozen could be made operational. Due to several being shot down during the Syrian Civil War, only a handful (<10) of MiG-23 were still operational as of 2018. An emergency aid programm started by Russia in 2020 supplied Syria with MiG-29s for the interceptor role to replace the already vanishing MiG-23s.