The entire balance and appearance of Syria’s armed forces has been altered by the mass of Soviet equipment pouring into that Arab country, the London Jewish Observer reported today. The newspaper said that Syria now has 40, 000 men under arms, with six infantry brigades and at least two armored brigades.
These units are now being completely re-equipped with Soviet weapons, the well-informed paper reported. These include 150 T-34 tanks, 100 SU-100 tank destroyers and 150 medium guns mostly 122 and 155-milimeter weapons. Two of the infantry brigades and one armored unit are being modeled completely on the Soviet pattern. Soviet and Czech instructors are trailing Syrian troops and Syrian cadets are being sent to the Soviet Union for further training.
The newspaper also reported that the Syrian air force is being overhauled with Soviet equipment replacing British and French planes. Four jet fighter squadrons have been formed and three of them are equipped with 50 Russian MiG-17 jets. Training of pilots for the Russian planes was reported still lagging, the newspaper said.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
