Saudi Arabia to provide Syrian rebels with anti-tank missiles and man-portable air defense systems 1

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Defence & Security News - Syria
 
 
Sunday, February 16, 2014 11:06 AM
 
Saudi Arabia to provide Syrian rebels with anti-tank missiles and man-portable air defense systems
According a report from the "The Wall Street Journal", Saudi Arabia has agreed to provide Syrian rebels with weapons able to destroy modern main battle tanks and fighter aircraft. The U.S. has long opposed arming rebels with antiaircraft missiles for fear they could fall into the hands of extremists who might use them against the West or commercial airlines.
     
According a report from the "The Wall Street Journal", Saudi Arabia has agreed to provide Syrina rebels with weapons able to destroy modern main battle tanks and fighter aircraft. The U.S. has long opposed arming rebels with antiaircraft missiles for fear they could fall into the hands of extremists who might use them against the West or commercial airlines.
Syrian rebels ready to fire with Russian-made Konkurs anti-tank missile against Syrian army main battle tank.
     

Saudi Arabia has offered to arm the Syrian rebels with Chinese man-portable missile systems (MANPADS and Russian anti-tank guided missiles, according to an Arab diplomat. The new aid is being delivered directly to the more moderate Free Syrian Army in the south of Syria

Rebel commanders and leaders of the Syrian political opposition said they don't know yet how many of the Manpads and antiaircraft missiles they will get. But they have been told it is a significant amount. The weapons are already waiting in warehouses in Jordan and Turkey.

The weapons will flow across the border into southern Syria from the warehouses in Jordan and across the northern border from Turkey. Rebel leaders said the shipments to southern Syria are expected to be more substantial because opposition fighters are more unified in that area and there is a lower risk the weapons will fall into the hands of Al-Qaeda terrorists group, a fear of United States.

This is the Russian-made anti-tank guided missile Konkurs which could be delivered to the Syrian Rebels. The 9K113 Konkurs (NATO code AT-5 Spandrel) is Russian-made Semi-automatic command to line of sight (SACLOS) wire-guided anti-tank missile.

The Konkurs has a maximum range of 4,000 meters and a minimum range of 100 meters. The 9M113M missile has a tandem warhead with an extended nose probe to defeat explosive reactive armour before the main warhead initiates to penetrate 750 to 800mm of main armour.
     

Video releases on Youtube shows Syrian rebels fire with Chinese-made FN-6 man-portable air defense missile system.
     
According to one video releases on Youtube, the Syrian rebels already use the Chinese-made FN-6 Man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS).

The FN-6 is a Chinese-made single-man portable air defense missile weapon system fitted with infrared passive homing guidance. It has the capability of all-direction attack and anti-infrared jamming. Featured with fire-and-forget capability, easily usable, portability, and compatible with all launching platform, the FN-6 can be used against any aerial threats flying at low altitude.

The FN-6 missile can effectively intercept fighter-bomber, helicopter and other aerial threats. The missile's operating range is from 500 m to 6 km, and its operating altitude is from 150 m to 3.5 km.