(Zaman Al Wasl)- The story of Factory 793 for small and light weapons is evidently very telling of the Syrian regime’s failure to acquire the minimum scientific sophistication and progress like its supporters claim it does.
A well-informed source attributed this to a very important reason which is the handing over of the factory to loyalists and members of the Assad community who were sent abroad in missions. Their corruption led to the loss and closure of entire production factories which, of course, cost millions of dollars.
The source explained to Zaman al-Wasl that the Factory 793, which was located in the area of Jabal Takisis" near the 797 ammunition factory, was producing small and light weapons of the types: medium machine gun 12.7, medium machine gun 14.5, and Russian rifle 7.62.
Our source adds that: “the main production line of the 793 light weapons factory was bought by North Korea, while some lathes, spare parts and other tools of the factory were purchased by several European countries, notably France and Belgium. The only Syrian factory responsible for the production of light and medium weapons is now sold to Europe.
The source confirmed that when it first started its production, the factory 793 used to take a sample of the weapons produced in order to run the necessary tests in the field of experimental testing that belonged to the factory. He indicated that the results have always been unacceptable (production rejected).
Our sources named multiple deficiencies found in the products. Most of these deficiencies take place in gun Barrels (explosions during experiments), as well as several issues among which is metal being unresisting to high temperature.
He stated that the Regime had failed in its attempts to improve and develop the quality of its weaponry. The regime sent groups of its people to North Korea on special missions for the purpose of developing and improving the quality of their products, which according to the source, was a waste of time since losses were continuously increasing due to the product failing each time in technical tests.
In 1991, about 10,000 Kalashnikov rifles were produced at once, but it was found during the test that all of them contained AC Milan, which destroyed all the products.
Our source revealed that the loss suffered by the factory (raw materials + salaries of employees) and other current expenses in 1992 amounted to about 156 million Syrian pounds, and therefore, it was decided to stop the factory from producing any more weapons.
He asserted that in 1993, and because of its failure to produce high quality weapons, the area of "Takasis" was chosen for the project of manufacturing the Scud missile instead of the factory 793. The Defense Establishment Corporation transferred, therefore, all the production lines of the factory 793 to the factory 794 in the area of "Zawi" near the city of Mesyaf in the countryside of Hama and canceled any productions orders given to 793.
In 2010, the factory was transferred from its owners in the Defense Establishment to the owners of the Center for Scientific Studies and Research, also due to its failure. The Defense Industries Corporation transferred the old production lines related to the production of light weapons, including the previous tools and machines of Factory 793, to Factory 790 in the As-Safira District in Aleppo province where they were put in two warehouses as secretariats.
The source continued to reveal that within these warehouses are production lines worth millions of dollars, which are still production lines scraped inside the warehouses of secretariats within Factory 790 in the As-Safira.
Zaman Al Wasl
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