[3] Bashar al-Assad, until then president of Syria, said that he went to the airbase after his opponents were closing in on Damascus, and that he was then evacuated to Russia on 8 December although he wanted to continue fighting.

[7] The existence of the Russian strategic base was revealed by the United States in early September 2015 and American officials expressed concern over the possibility of escalation of the conflict in Syria.

[18][19] During the 2024 Syrian opposition offensives, on 7 December, it was reported that an An-124 transport aircraft had arrived at the airbase, suggesting that Russia was preparing to evacuate its assets.

[20] Within several months in 2015 new infrastructure was built: air-conditioned accommodation for approximately 1,000 people, an air traffic control tower, runway extensions, storage facilities, field kitchens, and refuelling stations.

[21] After the 24 November 2015 shootdown of a Su-24M, a S-400 defensive missile system was installed, allowing Russia to defend the air space from Southern Turkey to Northern Israel.

This included the construction of a second landing strip, hangars to shelter planes from drone attacks and the sun, and a centralized fuel system to speed up refueling.

[citation needed] With the demise of opposing forces, Russian pilots were said to perform mainly training sessions having at hand 30 aircraft consisting of Su-35S, Su-34 and Su-24 planes and Mi-35 and Mi-8AMTSh helicopters.

[citation needed] In 2021, both Tu-22M3 Backfire long-range bombers and Su-35 fighters operating from the base were reported engaged in training flights over the eastern Mediterranean.

As a consequence, the Il-20, which has radar cross-section much larger than the F-16, was shot down by an S-200 system missile," the statement said, adding that 15 Russian military service members were killed.

"[41][42][43][44] Referring to the 6 January swarm attack on 25 October, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Colonel General Alexander Fomin said that "Thirteen drones moved according to common combat battle deployment, operated by a single crew.

During all this time the American Poseidon-8 reconnaissance plane patrolled the Mediterranean Sea area for eight hours," according to a TASS article which provided details on the operation, claiming that the Poseidon managed the attack, and the drones were switched from autonomous to manual control.

[53][unreliable source] On 30 June, Russian air defences repelled another drone attack on the base, shooting down multiple unidentified unmanned aerial vehicles.

[58][unreliable source] On January 19, February 3 and 11, June 22 and July 11, 2020, and also on September 27, 2021 Russian air defense systems repelled drone attacks.

[65][66] On December 7, 2024, during a Syrian opposition offensive which ultimately toppled the Assad regime, TheWarZone magazine reported signs of possible evacuation at the airbase.

[72] At the end of September 2015, NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe, General Philip Breedlove, said that the kind of military infrastructure that Russia had installed in Syria, which included anti-aircraft defence systems, was a de facto no-fly zone: "As we see the very capable air defense [systems] beginning to show up in Syria, we're a little worried about another A2/AD [anti-access/area denial] bubble being created in the eastern Mediterranean."