Name: Aleppo
Other Names: Halab
Location: Latitude 36° 12' North; longitude 37° 09' East; 350km north of Damascus; province of Halab.
Subordinate to: The Syrian Missile Command is based here.
Primary Function: Missile Command HQ; missile storage and production site
Description: 1992 press reports indicated that two missile factories were being constructed in Syria. Aleppo was one, the other was at Hama. Chinese specialists were reported to have repeatedly visited Syria in 1993, specifically to work on guidance systems, and were observed shuttling between Hama and the larger Aleppo facility.
The Syrian Missile Command based in Aleppo controls three mobile surface-to-surface missile (SSM) brigades comprising one battalion each (per brigade) of FROG-7 SSM, SS-21 Scarab SRBM and Scud-B missiles, with ranges between 70 and 300km. The missile command oversees operations of underground missile facilities, at least 15 of which are being readied for approximately 1000 Scud-C missiles, with a 500km range and Scud-D missiles, with a 700km range, are housed in tunnel complexes.
Many of the Scud-C missiles are known to be located currently at Hama; the Scud-D missiles are presumably in Aleppo and are being manufactured with assistance from the DPRK, China and Iran. The Chinese M-9 missile is also thought to be produced in Aleppo. Syria took delivery in May 2000 of a new, more accurate, missile from North Korea based on the Scud-D; the first indication of its existence however, did not occur until September of that year when it was picked up by radar during a test firing.
All of Syria's Scuds are allegedly designed to carry a full panoply of warheads, to include conventional, and potentially chemical or biological. Aleppo is viewed as one of several possible dual-use sites in Syria, as it includes a pharmaceuticals plant which enjoyed heavy investment from the Syrian government, to the tune of $40 million. However, although construction began in 1989, there has been no further indication of its completion.
Key Sources: Dany Shoham., "Poisoned Missiles: Syria's Doomsday Deterrent," The Middle East Quarterly, Fall 2002, <http://www.meforum.org/article/510>; John Pike, "Aleppo," Globalsecurity.org <http://www.gloabalsecurity.org/wmd/world/syria/aleppo.htm>. Accessed on 24 March 2003; "Syrian Ballistic Missile Arsenal," IraqWar.ru, <http://www1.iraqwar.ru/iraq-read_article.php?articleId=4872&lang=en>; William Safire, "China's 'Hama Rules'," The New York Times, March 5, 1992, p.27; "Syria: Missile Development," The Risk Report, March-April 1997, http://www.wisconsinproject.org/countries/syria/missiles.html.
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Updated August 2004 |
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