The Planes Iran Is Using To Ship Arms To Syria

It is no secret to anyone who follows the Syrian civil war that Iran has played a part in it through its IRGC forces and offering support to various militias in the country. This has led Iran to send large amounts of weapons into Syria often resulting in Israeli strikes targeting these weapons & forces.

Taking a look at these planes bringing these weapons, it is not uncommon to see several weapon shipments per week sometimes multiple per day. Iran will often use Syrian Air cargo flights but do use various IRGC operated aircraft. These flights will head to Tehran & will either return to Damascus or T4 airbase. Looking at the particular aircraft involved YK-ATB & YK-ATD conduct these shipments by Syrian air 

Syrian Air, Ilyushin Il-76T, YK-ATD

 Iran on the other hand has large selection of aircraft that primarily conduct these flights EP-FAB, EP-PUS, EP-BHC, EP-SHH & EP-FAA

Fars Air Qeshm, EP-FAB

There are more aircraft but the majority of the shipments are done through these aircraft. Iran has not come out and explicitly said these are weapon shipments they have been caught red handed in the shipment of these flights such as in April, this was first spotted via EO Browser

8th April 2019, T4 Airbase #Syria. Satellite imagery showing a cargo plane taxing away from the runway. pic.twitter.com/PR4YcpgduO

— Intel Sky & Air (@air_intel) May 16, 2019

The aircraft was latter correctly identified via Observer IL - #OSINT Analysis

T-4 Airbase #Syria - April 2019 - Fars Air Qeshm Boeing 747-281F(SCD) spotted on the runway from Mehrabad Airport #Tehran #Iran. Fars Air Qeshm is under #US and #EU sanctions list for assisting the #IRGC to transfer weapons to Syria. Sat imagery courtesy of @planetlabs #GEOINT pic.twitter.com/gQZvqb9234

— Observer IL - #OSINT Analysis (@Obs_IL) May 16, 2019

Lets take a short look at who these weapons are for & the response to it. Large amounts of these weapons have been flown into Damascus & have gone to IRGC forces which have embedded themselves into Syria over the years. The weapons that have been shipped to Syria according to various reports consist of light arms, UAVs and a variety of ballistic missiles.

The US response is of sanctioning said aircraft that they have suspected of being involved. Israel has taken a more direct approach as many of the weapons brought in directly threaten Israel, a result this has led to Israel taken out many of the shipments as they arrive along with targeting storage warehouses for these weapons & industrial sites that have been supplied as a result of these shipments