 Their expertise lay in Soviet-style combined arms operations involving armour, mechanized, artillery, and airborne forces.Defense Companies commanders were known to be personally close to several high-ranking Soviet military officials, like Vassily Margelov and Dmitri Sukhorukov, commanders of the VDF Airborne forces.The Defence Companies served in Syria's first armed intervention in the Lebanese Civil War in 1976, especially the initial offensive operations against PLO and PSP positions in Sidon and the Chouf, and were involved in internal security operations during the nationwide strikes and demonstrations in Aleppo in March 1980 and in June 1980.