Syrian Armed Forces Take to the Skies for the First Time Since the Overthrow of the Assad Regime

The Armed Forces of the new unified Syrian government have flown L-39 training aircraft and Su-22 fighter-bombers for the first time.

The Syrian Ministry of Defense published the video of the first flight.

The recruitment video captures demonstration flights of L-39 trainer aircraft, which can also serve as light attack aircraft, at the Qwerez air base. It also shows the use of Su-22 fighter-bombers at the Shayrat air base.

In addition, the video shows training flights and training firing of unguided aircraft missiles by Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters.

Aviation of the new Syrian government

In January 2025, Militarnyi reported that former Syrian rebels of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group had begun forming army aviation units.

Technicians and specialists began repairing the surviving helicopters at government-controlled military bases after a series of devastating Israeli air strikes on Syrian airfields and military ports. The purpose of that operation was to maximize the weakening of the military capabilities of the new Syrian government, which could potentially threaten Israel.

The strikes were executed as soon as the military bases came under the control of the then rebel forces. In particular, missile boats of the Syrian Navy in the port of Latakia were destroyed, as well as a significant number of air defense systems and attack helicopters at the Mezzeh air base in Damascus.

However, already in March 2025, the army of the new Syrian government, formed from former rebels, for the first time used Mi-24 attack helicopters in battles against Assad’s supporters in the coastal province of Latakia.

At the end of November 2024, the Syrian opposition, for the first time since 2020, launched an active offensive against the Assad regime’s troops.

The offensive ended in a stunning success – in a matter of days, any resistance from the regime’s troops was broken, and Assad himself was forced to flee to Moscow.

In March 2025, the Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which control most of the oil-rich northeast of Syria, signed an agreement with the Damascus government to join the new Syrian state institutions.

The agreement stipulates that the civilian and military institutions in northeastern Syria controlled by the SDF will be integrated with the state. This completed the unification of Syria after a bloody civil war that lasted since 2011.