![]() ![]() Next, the author searched variations of the unit’s name on Facebook to find additional posts and information. When a unit was identified, all of their associated Facebook pages were fully examined for posts relating to deployments, commanders, and affiliations with other units. Throughout this process, further SAA units were identified. To begin, the author searched in Arabic for posts regarding SAA divisions, brigades, regiments, and battalions known to him, followed by information on other units discussed in English-language media. The rest of the report is based almost entirely on publicly available Facebook posts from the personal profiles of SAA commanders and fighters and from Facebook pages dedicated to posting media about specific Republican Guard groups. This first half of this report is largely based on secondary sources: detailed reports written during the first half of the war on the SAA’s structure and strategy. This report details the causes of the collapse of the SAA and its attempted rebirth and ends with a detailed examination of its current order of battle. Between late 2015 and late 2018, Russia and Damascus engaged in four distinct initiatives to both rebuild the SAA and integrate militias under Damascus’ direct control. Russia’s fall 2015 intervention also ushered in a new era of attempted rebuilding. This strategy attempted to address the logistical and command issues that resulted from brigades operating hundreds of miles from the rest of their division. Furthermore, the way in which the SAA units were deployed, by “task-organizing” divisions into reliably loyal units of approximately one brigade, led to the disintegration of brigade-division administrative ties.Īs the regime attempted to reorganize beginning in 20, new divisions and brigades were created based on regional deployments. 1 The inability of Damascus to fully deploy its official army led to the rise of paramilitary militias and an influx of pro-regime foreign fighters. Defections, deaths, and a lack of funding have gutted its ranks while heavy losses of armored vehicles have significantly reduced the mechanized capabilities of what was once the sixth-largest armor fleet in the world. ![]() The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) has been decimated by eight years of civil war. ![]()
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