Hama Military Airport

Syria: An aerial study of activities at Hama Military Airport with listed videos-reports.

Please notice: this is a layman's post. If you read it please don't skip the notes during and at the bottom of the post. Also before you decide what to think of my writings: please read through my latest post (plead added 03/06/2014).

A Ilyiushin Il 76 cargo plane at Hama Airbase. Image source: video on cursethee's YouTube channel. Uploaded 01/09/2012.

(latest addition: October 4, 2012).

With a population of about half of that of Homs, with a relatively large airbase close by and with no natural barriers (like Rastan), it appears, that the Syrian government have been able to deploy enough forces in Hama, to maintain military control there. 

I get the impression, that this has made Hama crucial to the regimes efforts to hold on to control in the Central Western part of the country. This would also have increased the importance of Hama military airport. And it is from that understanding, that I have tried to use the Google Earth's history-slide to make an aerial study, to see, if any changes in activity on the air base could be detected.


Aerial study: 

In the following I have zoomed in on different parts of the airport. I have chosen to use the aerial from Februar 22th 2012 for this, both because the quality of the aerial of that day is relatively good, and because my study indicates, that a change in activities did happen around this time.

There are links to comparative material (aerials from other dates) in the texts below each of the letter-marked areas, and for an overview of the whole country (if needed), I have placed a screen-shot from Wikimapia at the bottom of this post. I have also compiled some of the relevant video-reports in the last part of the post.

An aerial from Google Earth of Hama Military Airport just South-West of Hama city. Rectangles marked A – F indicate the areas that I have zoomed in on below.

A:  activity in all three areas marked seems to be above what have been the norm in the previous images.
Left rectangle: looks like mostly vehicles.
Centre rectangle: here it looks like white tents have popped up, and I suspect they are for ammunition storage. In the latest aerials most of the tents have disappeared, but a number of earth-walls are visible.
Right: some jets are visible along with signs of general activity. It's hard to say anything solid about the number of jets on the basis of this material except that since February 2012 between 6 and 8 jets are visible where none were visible earlier (see previous link).
..

B:  In this aerial 5 helicopters are visible. That number is about the same as what can be seen in the images taken at dates before this, but after this date, the number of visible helicopters in the marked area rises to between 12 and 14.

C:  The number of visible jets in this area seems to have been between 6 and 8 until just after this image. From March 2012 and in the following aerials the number have dropped to 1 or 2.

D:  This area had no visible air-crafts before February 2012, at that time the number of visible aricrafts rises to between 4 and 6 helicopters, and outside the marked area two more jets show up in the aerials of may and June.

E:  before February 2012: between 2 and 5 jets. After February the number seems to drop to between 3 and 0.

F:  in the larger rectangle (white) there was just one visible air-craft and no vehicles before February 2012, but In this February 22th aerial there are signs of general activity, mainly vehicles it seems. In the aerial from March 2012 a number of white objects become visible within the smaller (dark) rectangle. I have inserted the corresponding sections from the March and June aerials to the fare right. My guess is that these - like in aerial A - are tents for ammunition. If so the tents disappear again, and so does the visible activity.
When I prepared these aerials I missed that between 3 and 4 jets are visible at this end of the airport. It varies where they are placed. In this aerial there are 2 or 3 in the top right corner and one by the hangar in the lower right corner. In other aerials 2 or 3 jets are visible at the end of the runway, just outside (to the south of) this aerial. These jets also cease to be visible in the images taken after March (except maybe one that can be seen in the hangar in the top right corner).

Summing up the aerials: 

It should be obvious that this is a very sketchy study. The intervals between the aerials are fare to long to insure, that coincidental events doesn't get to play the role as the norm. Among such coincidental events could be jets or helicopters being outside their hangar temporarily.

 

That said, to me the jump in activities around February 2012 appears significant, and so does the rise in the number of visible helicopters.
The drop in the number of visible jets seems a little less convincing. Some are showing up at A and D while a more disappear in C, E and F. This could have to do with the way, the Eastern part of the airport seems to have been cleared of visible activity in general. And a  possible explanation for this clearing, could be fear of being targeted by missiles or RPGs, from cover of the buildings and trees less than 1 km to the East.
Should that be the case, then I can't help getting the thought, that it could be a consequence of the attack on Abu Ad Duhour air-base with an anti-tank missile back in March 2012.


Video-reported activities:

A Mil Mi-8/17 helicopter decending at Hama Airbase. Image source: video on cursethee's YouTube channel. Uploaded 04/09/2012.

'03 02 2012 Haman: a civilian airplane inside Hama military airport in + English subtitles‬', uploaded 08/03/2012.
10:54 min. video w/subtitles: ‪Ilyushin IL-76TD‬ cargo plane unloading and view of air port.

'(03-02-12) Hama | Military Airport Uses Civilian Planes to Move Shabiha, Bring in Weapons‬', uploaded 04/03/2012.
0:44 min. video: looks like parts of the (two) previous recordings.

'Civilian aircraft landing at the airport in Hama military 28-4-2012', uploaded 28/04/2012.
0:54 min. smaller cargo plane on run or taxi way.

'Hama | civilian aircraft landing at the airport in Hama military‬', uploaded 05/06/2012.
0:36 min. video: A ilyushin IL76 coming in low with landing gear extended,  via @Guardian_Mario . More video-reportings from Hama of Syrian Ilyushin IL76 cargo planes.

'Civilian aircraft in the military airport in Hama 10-6-2012‬', uploaded 17/06/2012.
1:49 min. video: a ‪Ilyushin IL-76TD‬ cargo plane taking off.

'FNN Syria Hama Hama Military Airport 6 8 2012', uploaded 07/08/2012.
1:39 min. video: smaller cargo/passenger plan on the ground.

'FNN Syria Hama A warplane has left the military airport 25 8 2012‬', uploaded 07/08/2012.
1:37 min. video: jet - possibly a MiG-21 - takes off.

'Hama air base reconnaissance', uploaded 01/09/2012.
2:57 min. video: Helicopter landing, taxing, ‪Ilyushin IL-76TD‬ cargo plane.

'FNN Syria Hama Movements in the Military Airport 1 9 2012‬', uploaded 02/09/2012.
4:09 min. video: Helicopter taxing, possibly some overlaps with previous and following vid.

'Hama Military Airport', ‬ uploaded 04/09/2012.
0:23 min. video: helicopter landing.

'Hama: Asadi warplanes flying over the town c 2', uploaded 04/09/2012
0:07 min. video: MiG-23 with landing gear extended.

'Hama: Asadi warplanes flying over the town c 1', uploaded 04/09/2012
0:09 min. video: MiG-21 coming towards and past the reporter.
 
'Iranian civilian plane at the military airport Hama', ‬ uploaded 23/01/2013.
0:18 min. video: A ilyushin IL76 with Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps markings approaching Hama military ariport (location according to uploader).

Video list with recordings of IRGC cargo planes in Syria.

A ilyushin IL-76 with markings of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps approaching Hama military airport (location acc2 title). Image source: video on adamfree gondallah's YouTube channel. Uploaded 23/01/2013.

Lists of video-reports related to use of Hama military airport:

Syrian Ilyushin IL-76 cargo planes, video-reported from Hama military airport.

Recordings of rocket artillery claimed to be launched from Hama military airport.

More about use of the Ilyushin IL-76:

'The use of civil aircraft in the transfer of arms to Syria', uploaded 13/11/2012.
0:29 min. video: leaked recording from Damascus airport with at least 4 IL-76 planes. via @TaimSyria.

'Turkey seized Iranian weapon cargo on route to Syria‬', uploaded 23/03/2011.
2:15 min. video: Turkish news-clip about an Iranian Ilyushin Il 76 being stopped in Turkey with light weapons (said Turkish authorities, according to video description). 


* note: I've seen a few more videos with Ilyushin Il 76 heading to or taking off from Hama Military Airport, that I haven't been able to find. If anyone can link me to them (or other videos) it will be welcomed.
* note 2: this post is an extention of an update to the post 'Syrian Airforce Unleashed', linked-to further down too. 
* note 3: I have collected some material about the deployment of military forces against Hama in the post 'Attack on Hama'.
* note 4 (added 12/09/2012): it should be mentioned, that the date of and locations of the videos are not verified. In relation to this, I want to add, on my own account, that the footage showing buildings of the airbase seems to correspond with the aerials, and also, that if I manage to find more of the early videos of Ilyushins over Hama, I expect the dates of the recordings, added so fare, will be better substantiated. 

Airbases in Syria:

Screen-shot from Wikimapia. The markers are the airbases that are registered in Wikimapia. My apologies for not having managed to find room for all of the country..

Aviation journalist David Cenciotti has several Hama related posts on his The Aviationist blog, and he was the first, that I saw, who reported on the appearance of the Ilyushin cargo plane at Hama airbase. He also collected evidence, that an Iranian drone - the Pahpad - was operated from the airbase, and identified another cargo plane as well (links added 12/09/2012).

The latest on Twitter: search 'Hama Airport'. search 'Hama Airbase'

Related posts on this blog:
- Syrian Airforce Unleashed
- Syrian Airforce use of the L-39 Albatros
- Fuel air bombs? Evidence from Talbiseh 
- Helicopter attack on farm outside Daraa
- Air base missile attack
.
- all comments and corrections are welcome - either as post-comments or @bjoernen_hj.