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
Fielded Full record →
Coverage · Central Sahel
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. Branch depth reflects what can be established from public sources, not the size, capability or importance of a force: a thin branch means a state publishes little, and record counts are never a measure of strength.
Order of battle Structural · historical · non-operational
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Line pattern is the subordination the record states: solid confirmed · dashed reported · fine dots disputed · sparse dots unknown or historical. Vigil category device — drawn from this record’s own domain, echelon and role. Not an official insignia. No positions, strengths, readiness or movements are published, and none is drawn.
Equipment Library Major publicly documented systems · full profiles and structured records
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
Fielded Full 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
Fielded Full record →
BM-21 Grad
Rocket artillery- Role
- The world's most widely used rocket launcher — forty 122 mm tubes on a truck, delivering area fire that is cheap, fast and inaccurate — in service on every side of the Ukrainian, Caucasus and Sahel wars.
- Origin
- Soviet Union
- Also appears in
- Ukraine–Russia · Nagorno-Karabakh · Mali
Fielded Full 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
Fielded Full 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
Fielded Full 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 / withdrawn Full record →
Cessna 208 Caravan (ISR)
AEW&C / ISR aircraft- Role
- A single EU-donated light surveillance aircraft from the partnership era; current serviceability unclear.
- Origin
- United States
- Also appears in
- Mali
Status uncertain Full 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
Fielded Full 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
Fielded Full 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
Fielded Full record →
L-39 Albatros
Combat aircraft- Role
- Jet trainers pressed into light-attack service — the Syrian war's workhorse against towns without air defence, and part of the 2022 Russian delivery packages to Mali.
- Origin
- Czechoslovakia
- Also appears in
- Mali · Syria
Fielded Full 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
Fielded Full 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
Fielded Full 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 / withdrawn Full 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 / withdrawn Full 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
Fielded Full record →
NH90
Helicopter- Role
- European transport helicopters that gave MINUSMA and Barkhane their medevac and mobility edge — capabilities that left with them.
- Origin
- France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands
- Also appears in
- Mali (MINUSMA / Barkhane, historical)
Historical / withdrawn Full 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 / withdrawn Full 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
Fielded Full 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
Fielded Full 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 and MINUSMA, historical)
Historical / withdrawn Full 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 / withdrawn Full 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 / withdrawn Full 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
Fielded Full record →