ACMAT Bastion
Armoured personnel carrier- Role
- Wheeled armoured personnel carrier of the army’s convoy and intervention units — protection against the war’s defining threat, the roadside bomb.
- Origin
- France
- Also appears in
- Mali
FieldedFull record →
Conflict coverage · Central Sahel
Force Structure
A structured catalogue of major publicly documented forces, formations, and equipment — cross-linked, sourced, and deliberately non-operational.
Explore the system13 analytical layers in this conflict
Understand
Military & security
Effects & resilience
Follow
Context, not targeting. This atlas describes structure and history. It deliberately excludes current locations, live strength, unit movements, and anything operationally sensitive — the content model has no fields for them. See the methodology.
AES states & allied forces
External security partners
Azawad movements
JNIM & lineage
Islamic State Sahel
Regional & international (historical)
Reviewed profiles of major publicly documented systems — the ones unit profiles and key events link to, each with a permanent page. The full structured catalogue, including the stub index, lives at Equipment. Each system's confidence grade, status date and sources are shown on its own record.
Bayraktar Akıncı
Strike UAV / loitering munition- Role
- Heavy Turkish strike drone — a step up from the TB2 in payload and reach, and the aircraft whose loss to Algerian air defence ruptured Mali–Algeria relations.
- Origin
- Türkiye
- Also appears in
- Mali
FieldedFull record →
Bayraktar TB2
Strike UAV / loitering munition- Role
- The early-war icon whose strike role faded as Russian air defence coalesced — a case study in how fast adaptation cycles run in this war.
- Origin
- Türkiye
- Also appears in
- Ukraine–Russia · Mali · Nagorno-Karabakh · Libya · Syria
FieldedFull record →
BM-21 Grad
Rocket artillery- Role
- Truck-mounted rocket artillery in small numbers — area fires with all the accuracy problems that implies in a war among civilians.
- Origin
- Soviet Union
- Also appears in
- Mali
FieldedFull record →
BRDM-2
Reconnaissance vehicle- Role
- A Soviet amphibious scout car of 1960s design — long out of production, still in service across multiple wars from refurbished stock.
- Origin
- Soviet Union
- Also appears in
- Ukraine–Russia · Mali
FieldedFull record →
BTR-80
Armoured personnel carrier- Role
- The standard Soviet-pattern eight-wheeled armoured personnel carrier — mobile, lightly protected, and still the default troop carrier of the armies that inherited or bought it.
- Origin
- Soviet Union / Russia
- Also appears in
- Ukraine–Russia · Mali
FieldedFull record →
Casspir MPV
Protected mobility / MRAP- Role
- Mine-protected vehicles of MINUSMA contingents — the shape of a mission that fought, above all, the roadside bomb.
- Origin
- South Africa
- Also appears in
- Mali (MINUSMA, historical)
Historical / withdrawnFull record →
Cessna 208 Caravan (ISR)
AEW&C / ISR aircraft- Role
- US-donated light surveillance aircraft from the pre-coup partnership era; current serviceability unclear.
- Origin
- United States
- Also appears in
- Mali
Status uncertainFull record →
Commercial drones (armed-group use)
Reconnaissance UAV- Role
- Commercial quadcopters for reconnaissance, propaganda filming and, increasingly, improvised attack — the Ukraine playbook arriving in the Sahel at village scale.
- Origin
- Various (commercial)
- Also appears in
- Mali · the wider Sahel
FieldedFull record →
D-30 122mm howitzer
Artillery- Role
- The ubiquitous Soviet 122mm towed howitzer — simple, cheap and exported everywhere; the baseline of tube artillery in most armies that field it.
- Origin
- Soviet Union
- Also appears in
- Ukraine–Russia · Mali
FieldedFull record →
IEDs (capability record)
IED / explosive threat · capability record- Role
- A capability-level record only: roadside and vehicle-borne bombs are the instrument that made Mali’s roads the front line. This record deliberately contains no technical detail.
- Origin
- Improvised (in-theatre)
- Also appears in
- Mali · the wider Sahel
FieldedFull record →
L-39 Albatros
Combat aircraft- Role
- Jet trainers pressed into light-attack service, part of the 2022 Russian delivery packages.
- Origin
- Czechoslovakia
- Also appears in
- Mali
FieldedFull record →
Mi-24/Mi-35 Hind
Helicopter- Role
- The Soviet gunship that outlived its era — armour, heavy firepower and a troop bay, flown in escort and fire-support roles decades after its designers expected.
- Origin
- Soviet Union / Russia
- Also appears in
- Ukraine–Russia · Mali
FieldedFull record →
Mi-8/Mi-17 Hip
Helicopter- Role
- The most widely used military helicopter ever built — assault transport, resupply and medevac, and the only way into places roads cannot safely reach.
- Origin
- Soviet Union / Russia
- Also appears in
- Ukraine–Russia · Mali
FieldedFull record →
MiG-21
Combat aircraft- Role
- The Soviet-era fighter fleet of Mali’s Cold War alignment — long inoperable, a reminder that the Russian relationship is a return, not a novelty.
- Origin
- Soviet Union
- Also appears in
- Mali (historical)
Historical / withdrawnFull record →
Mirage 2000D
Combat aircraft- Role
- The strike aircraft of Serval and Barkhane — precision air power that the post-French order has not replaced.
- Origin
- France
- Also appears in
- Mali (Serval / Barkhane, historical)
Historical / withdrawnFull record →
Motorcycles (insurgent mobility)
Light mobility- Role
- Two fighters, one rifle, one motorcycle: the insurgency’s unit of manoeuvre, and the capability government motorcycle bans have tried and failed to suppress.
- Origin
- Various (commercial)
- Also appears in
- Mali · the wider Sahel
FieldedFull record →
NH90
Helicopter- Role
- European transport helicopters that gave MINUSMA its medevac and mobility edge — capabilities that left with them.
- Origin
- France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands
- Also appears in
- Mali (MINUSMA, historical)
Historical / withdrawnFull record →
SA342 Gazelle
Helicopter- Role
- Light attack helicopters of the opening intervention — one crew took the first French loss of Serval in January 2013.
- Origin
- France
- Also appears in
- Mali (Serval, historical)
Historical / withdrawnFull record →
Su-25
Combat aircraft- Role
- The Soviet “flying tank” — a rugged, heavily armoured close-support jet built to operate low, from rough fields, and absorb hits.
- Origin
- Soviet Union / Russia
- Also appears in
- Ukraine–Russia · Mali
FieldedFull record →
Technicals (armed pickups)
Light mobility- Role
- The pickup truck with a heavy weapon is the true main combat system of the Sahel war — on every side.
- Origin
- Various (commercial chassis)
- Also appears in
- Mali · the wider Sahel · Syria
FieldedFull record →
Tigre attack helicopter
Helicopter- Role
- Barkhane’s attack helicopter — escort and strike across the Liptako until the 2022 withdrawal.
- Origin
- France, Germany, Spain
- Also appears in
- Mali / Sahel (Barkhane, historical)
Historical / withdrawnFull record →
VAB
Armoured personnel carrier- Role
- The French infantry’s wheeled workhorse throughout Serval and Barkhane.
- Origin
- France
- Also appears in
- Mali (Serval / Barkhane, historical)
Historical / withdrawnFull record →
VBCI
Infantry fighting vehicle- Role
- Wheeled infantry fighting vehicles that gave the French intervention its protected punch on the long desert axes.
- Origin
- France
- Also appears in
- Mali (Serval / Barkhane, historical)
Historical / withdrawnFull record →
ZU-23-2
Air defence- Role
- Twin 23mm cannon — nominally anti-air, in practice the heaviest direct-fire weapon on both sides’ gun trucks.
- Origin
- Soviet Union
- Also appears in
- Mali
FieldedFull record →