Thread by @BroderickM_

New drones have played a major role in #HTS capture of #Aleppo 🧵

Photo/Video thread on:

- How HTS manufactures them on an industrial scale
- How HTS trains fighters to fly them
- How HTS targets high-value, strategic targets (senior regime commanders, artillery, tanks)

#Syria #Aleppo #Hama

Manufacturing: HTS is mass producing #drones using 3D printers to create parts they cannot buy and small factories in safe houses which are hard to target. Some are modified consumer drones (Mavic 3/Mavic Air) while others are kits #Syria #HTS

Drones are tested in small manufacturing facilities which are hard to target before being sent to fighters on the frontlines

Training: Video games and simulators are used, alongside tutorials in the field to train operators

HTS has focussed heavily on training specialised units and professionalising its forces over the past several years, even establishing a military academy based on Western training doctrines (see @jeromedrev and @E_of_Justice work for more details on training & re-organization)

Targeting: HTS #Shaheen (Falcon) brigades have focussed on targeting senior regime officers in both #Aleppo and #Hama before the main offensive push on the ground to create chaos

Over the weekend, HTS drone units killed the #SAA commander of its military security for #Hama, Uday Ghossah

HTS have also used their drone units to target high-value assets, including hilltop artillery positions, tanks, APCs and armoured vehicles, just as in #Ukraine (much of the #Syria Arab Army stock are old Russian T55s and T72s which similarly explode with even nearby FPV drone strikes)

#HTS have also begun using larger drones, including a turbojet model, to carry bigger payloads and go much further than FPV drones can fly on a single charge

The experimentation with larger drones represents a significant shift from previous drone usage in #Syria. While Syria was the first major armed conflict to see consumer drones armed by rebels, they have advanced significantly in the past 10 years

While there was lots of speculation and theories floating around about #HTS receiving training from #Ukraine earlier this year, no evidence has materialized. More likely, the proliferation of drone use is simply now a staple of modern conflicts whether in #Syria #Azerbaijan #Yemen or elswhere

Drones arent limited to #HTS either, the #SNA factions have also used FPV drones effectively to target large #SAA concentrations in eastern #Aleppo

HTS strike on a SAA regime officers building in Masyaf via @SaladinAlDronni

HTS appear determined to take #Hama, the fourth-largest city in #Syria. They have taken key towns like Taybat al-Imam (see below) just north of the city.

The #SAA was initially able to hold them off but given the poor organization and morale in the SAA its hard to see them continuing to hold Hama for much longer (#Latakia or #Damascus are a very different story)

Extremely useful list of all the town & villages captured in NW #Syria (as close as can be feasibly tracked) from #SyriaWeekly

via @Charles_Lister

Lots of misinformation and exaggerated claims of the rebels advance in #Hama today on here. For a very careful, empirical update, see @putintintin1's latest thread:

#Syria