Warring parties in the Middle East have been using the region’s recent violent convulsions to test and upgrade weapons, improve the skills of their fighters, and showcase their defence technology to would-be buyers.
Fighting in Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and the Red Sea has involved state actors such as the United States, Russia, Israel, Turkey, and Iran, alongside non-state actors such as Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), and Kurdish militias. All have used the tumult to sharpen their teeth and show how their weapons work in theatres of war.
The Middle East has seen so much devastation in recent months, both physically and in terms of lives lost, but it has also been used by states as a military testing ground, an opportunity to upgrade arsenals, and a real-life training scenario to improve the battle experience of fighters.
Some see the battlefields as large-scale military laboratories, with Israel using Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria as giant firing ranges, the United States operating aerially over Iraq, and Russia using Syria as a weapons system testing ground.
Russia tests its kit
Two years into its intervention, Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasised his forces’ experience in Syria to sell weapons. “The capabilities of Russian weapons, their exceptional reliability and effectiveness, are also manifested in the fight against terrorism in Syria,” he said in a speech.
“The use of aviation and air defence systems in real combat conditions gives absolutely invaluable experience to flight and engineering personnel, air defence calculations, as well as to developers of domestic military products.”
