MESOP JANE’S REPORT – AMERICAN INFANTRY WEAPONS FOR PKK/PYD (SDF)
Infantry Weapons – US arms shipment to Syrian rebels detailed
Jeremy Binnie, London and Neil Gibson, London – IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly – 07 April 2016 – JANE’S IHS REPORT 360
A still from a video released by the Syrian rebel group Jaish al-Izzah on 16 December 2015 shows one of its fighters preparing to fire an ATGW that could be either a 9K111 Fagot or a 9K111M Faktoria, the two being externally identical. Jaish al-Izzah also uses US-made TOW ATGWs. Source: Jaish al-Izzah: WATCH THE LIST
| Simplified packing list for December 2015 arms shipment | |||
| Type | Weight (kg) | ||
| Aqaba | Agalar | Total | |
| 7.62×39 mm | 85,190 | 48,998 | 134,188 |
| 7.62×54 mm | 58,752 | 8,652 | 67,404 |
| 12.7 mm | 81,468.40 | 36,713 | 118,181 |
| 14.5 mm | 196,233.76 | 173,447 | 369,681 |
| 82 mm | 53,885.34 | 53,885 | |
| PG-7VM | 0.00 | 68,600 | 68,600 |
| PG-7VT | 36,795 | 88,224.00 | 125,019 |
| 9M111M | 13,540 | 8,153 | 21,693 |
| AK-47 & DShK* | 12,250 | 12,250 | |
| AK-47 & PKM* | 6,540 | 6,540 | |
| PKM | 6,340 | 6,340 | |
| DShK & RPG-7* | 3,585 | 3,585 | |
| RPG-7 | 4,120 | 4,120 | |
| Faktoria launchers | 2,421.60 | 298 | 2,720 |
| Total | 550,996 | 443,210 | 994,206 |
| * The packing list merged some categories |
Documents released by the US government’s Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website have provided an indication of the types and numbers of Eastern European weapons and ammunition the United States is providing to Syrian rebel groups as part of a programme that continues despite the widely respected ceasefire in that country.
The FBO has released two solicitations in recent months looking for shipping companies to transport explosive material from Eastern Europe to the Jordanian port of Aqaba on behalf of the US Navy’s Military Sealift Command.
Released on 3 November 2015, the first solicitation sought a contractor to ship 81 containers of cargo that included explosive material from Constanta in Bulgaria to Aqaba.
The solicitation was subsequently updated with a detailed packing list that showed the cargo had a total weight of 994 tonnes, a little under half of which was to be unloaded at Agalar, a military pier near the Turkish town of Tasucu, the other half at Aqaba.
The cargo listed in the document included AK-47 rifles, PKM general-purpose machine guns, DShK heavy machine guns, RPG-7 rocket launchers, and 9K111M Faktoria anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW) systems. The Faktoria is an improved version of the 9K111 Fagot ATGW, the primary difference being that its missile has a tandem warhead for defeating explosive reactive armour (ERA) fitted to some tanks. www.mesop.de