Adolf Hitler and the Nazis did it in Spain during the 1930s and Russian President Vladimir Putin has been doing it in Syria since 2015. Intervening in a civil war provides an excellent opportunity for a military to test new weapons systems and give its leaders some combat experience.
Since the Russian intervention in Syria began in 2015, Putin’s military has used the opportunity to test new planes, tanks, cruise missiles, and air defense systems, as well as to rotate military officers into the country to gain exposure to real-world operations.
“It’s pretty clear to me the Russians have leveraged Syria as an opportunity to look at their capabilities and get a sense of where they’re at,” Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, the former head of U.S. Air Forces Central Command, told Defense News in August. “Not only from the weapon system perspective, but also with their people, rotating their forces in and out of there, frankly to get some combat time on them.
“And take not only some of those folks that may be operating on the ground, but also their aviators, and get some combat time on them to deliver weapons, or frankly to see what we were doing up there. So I think we need to be cognizant of that as a nation and recognize that they’ve leveraged that.”
Though most munitions used in air strikes in Syria have been unguided, strikes conducted by Russian aircraft in October 2015 marked the first time that Russia employed precision-guided weapons in combat.
The Kalibr cruise missile has also made its combat debut in Syria. In October 2015, a Gepard class frigate and three Buyan-M class Russian Navy corvettes, part of the Russian Navy’s Caspian Flotilla, launched 26 Kalibr-NK system cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea. Russian ships and submarines have continued to strike targets in Syria with the Kalibr.
Putin, who was photographed earlier this week test-shooting Russia’s new Kalashnikov-designed Chukavin sniper rifle SVCh-308, has admitted that he sees Syria as an opportunity to test new weapons and develop Russia’s military leaders with combat experience.
“The use of our armed forces in combat conditions is a unique experience and a unique tool to improve our armed forces,” Vladimir Putin said during a televised public question-and-answer session in June. “No exercises can compare with actually using the armed forces in combat conditions.”
“Syria is not a shooting range for Russian weapons, but we are still using them there, our new weapons,” Putin said. “This has led to the improvement of modern strike systems, including missile systems. It is one thing to have them, and quite another thing to see how they fare in combat conditions.”
“Our commanders – we had a large number of officers and generals go in Syria and take part in these hostilities – began to understand what a modern armed conflict is, how important communication, intelligence, interaction between all-arms units and formations is, how important it is to ensure the effective operation of the aerospace group, aviation, ground forces, including special operations forces,” Putin said.
Speaking Wednesday at a meeting focusing on military industries, Putin specifically praised the new Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile, the Su-57 fighter jet, the S-500 air defense system and the Armata battle tank, all of which are set to enter service in the coming years.
