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Image posted, fake images
Bayraktar drone
Tapes showing Azerbaijani drone strikes against Armenian targets in Nagorno Karabakh have come to symbolize the sudden escalation of fighting in this conflict that has been unfolding in one form or another for more than three decades.
These photos also raised fears that Azerbaijan had acquired the Turkish “Bayraktars” drones, a move that drew international criticism.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry is distributing photos taken by reconnaissance drones, which show the nature of the target areas, as well as tapes taken by “suicide” drones, which are planes loaded with explosives that hit their targets and explode.
The two countries are reported to have been busy recently arming themselves, especially Azerbaijan and specifically with regard to drone systems.
The most striking drones in the current conflict are the Turkish TB2 Bayraktars.
Experts say that most of the tapes distributed and released by the Azerbaijani army for the bombing operations in Nagorno Karabakh were filmed by such aircraft.
Notably, the Turkish company Baykar developed these drones a few years ago, and the drone can operate on its own and can be used for reconnaissance and targeting purposes.
The TB2 drone is a bright star in the sky of the market for this type of aircraft, and Turkey used it in Operation Spring Shield, which its forces carried out in Syria in February 2020, and earlier in Libya against the leader’s forces. war Khalifa Haftar.
Turkey sold this drone to Ukraine, and Turkish news agency Anadolu reported on the 6th of this month that Serbia expressed a desire to buy models of it.
Although experts claim that these TB2 aircraft were the ones that took pictures of the destruction of the Armenian armor, there has been no official confirmation that they are part of the Azerbaijani military arsenal.
On October 5, the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, announced that his country owns several of these drones, but the Azerbaijani authorities have not published any document proving their purchase and receipt.
And last June, media reports reported that the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry hopes to receive them in the future.
Andrei Frolov, editor-in-chief of the Russian newsletter “Arms Exports”, believes that Azerbaijan secretly stored these planes or started receiving them shortly before the outbreak of the current fighting.
clamor
The absence of official information on the export and use of Turkish drones may be related to the fact that they use technologies developed in other countries. On Monday, Canada announced that it intends to stop exporting technologies used in drone production to Turkey due to concerns about their use in the Nagorno-Karabakh war.
The Canadian non-governmental project (Plowshares) says that the images showing the drone bombings in Nagorno Karabakh show that the planes that took them were using equipment produced by the Canadian subsidiary of L3Harris Technologies, a multinational company specializing in technical matters and defense.
Turkey responded by accusing Canada, its NATO ally, of double standards and acting against the spirit of the alliance.
Walkers game: fromaYou will be informed of the attack
The Azerbaijani army also uses other types of drones. The American Bard College Center for the Study of UAVs says the Azerbaijani army owns two Israeli “Heron TP” drones, another 10 “Hermes 4507” planes, 100 “Sky Strikers” and 50 “Harrup” planes.
The Israeli joint venture Azad Systems of Azerbaijan developed the “Aerostar” drone and two suicide drones Orbiter 1K and Orbiter 3K. It also provided the Azerbaijani coast guard with two Hermes 900 long-range drones.
Rob Lee, a researcher for military affairs at King’s College in the British capital London, told the BBC that the main difference between the escalation we are currently seeing in the intensity of the fighting in Nagorno Karabakh and the fighting in the past lies in the use of attack drones. It can drop bombs. In the past, Azerbaijan used only suicide drones.
A video posted by Armenia shows the moment when an anti-aircraft missile hits a plane that looks a lot like a Soviet-era Antonov-2 two-winged aircraft. Media reports indicated that this plane was also flying a drone and that its purpose was to trick air defense systems into revealing its locations.
Image posted, lt.cjdby.net
China has developed many military drones, but they are too expensive for Armenia to buy
Armenia does not buy drones
Russian expert Andrei Frolov says that Armenia has not purchased any drones in the recent period, and that the reason for this is that Yerevan may have misjudged the extent of the threat posed by Azerbaijani drones.
“They have not announced any plans to buy drones. Since these planes are not available to Russia, they had to go to China or Iran to buy them. But the matter is related to financing, while Armenians can buy equipment from Russia with loans. preferential, “Frolov told the Russian BBC. “Buying in China is not that easy. As for the drones of domestic production in Armenia that they are talking about, they have no effect.”
Armenia is reported to produce light reconnaissance drones called “Kronk” (meaning the crane), but the number of these aircraft that participated in the Nagorno-Karabakh war is unknown.
Frolov says Armenia bought Russia’s Tor anti-aircraft missile systems, which are capable of shooting down drones, but there have been no reports of their deployment to the battle fronts.
Image posted, Azerbaijan MOD
A photo released by the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry shows a drone attacking an OSA missile launcher
The Armenians are using several Soviet surface-to-air missile launchers Osa and Strela in Nagorno-Karabakh, and these missiles have already shot down several Azeri drones.
Did drones help Azerbaijan?
Azerbaijan has released dozens of videos showing raids carried out by its drones on Armenian sites.
The targets included mainly armor and, to a lesser extent, armories and soldier depots. Azerbaijani drones also attacked the Osa and Strela anti-aircraft system sites.
It is not known how many air defense systems Armenia has deployed in Nagorno Karabakh, nor the extent of the damage suffered as a result of the Azerbaijani incursions.
The OSA and Strela missile systems do not play a decisive role in the fight against attack drones.
Expert Rob Lee says: “We have seen many tapes of drones bombarding the sites of the OSA and Strela systems, which are outdated defense systems. The operators of these systems must have been trying to detect the TB2 Azerbaijan drones on radar screens. But these systems are designed. ” “To deal with helicopters and fighter jets, therefore, it is difficult for them to sense the presence of small-sized drones in the air. In fact, perhaps the main purpose of using drones in the first place is to neutralize air defense systems. of Nagorno-Karabakh “.
As Russian military expert Viktor Murakhovsky says, the air defense systems in Nagorno-Karabakh are much weaker than those deployed in Armenia itself, as they only include old systems and lack sufficient radar field, so drones can operate without hindrance.
“However, not all air defense systems in Nagorno-Karabakh have been destroyed, as the other party (the Azerbaijani side) knows very well, and we do not see any real presence of conventional fighter jets in the skies of the battles. since Azerbaijan has not yet used its fighters or helicopters. “
The videotapes of the drone attacks on the Nagorno Karabakh websites had an impact on the Internet audience, who viewed them enthusiastically, enthusiastically discussed them and shared them through social media platforms.
But Murakhovsky says that we should not judge the effectiveness of the drones through these tapes, adding: “They do not publish images of failures or images of targets of these planes.”
Can you defend yourself from drones?
Image posted, EPA
The US military has been using drones in the Middle East for years
Expert Rob Lee says that the drone strikes may have caused heavy losses on the Armenian side (despite the absence of exact details of those losses), “but this does not mean that Azerbaijan can convert its tactical successes achieved thanks to the TB2 aircraft in strategic successes or in the acquisition of Land “.
And Russian expert Murakhovsky, in turn, says that while drones are relatively recent weapons on battlefields, they have been used for some time and extensively, so there are ways and methods to deal with them. Syrian armed groups have had to develop tactics to resist them.
“They have used bunkers and underground shelters for their armored vehicles and equipment as they scatter their weapons and do not stack them in one place as they use fortified trenches. Nagorno Karabakh, as it lacks funds to buy modern air defense systems, you can use these methods and tactics to counter drones. ” “.
In this situation, fake sites can be useful. In one of the videotapes distributed by the Azerbaijan Ministry of Defense, a drone appears clearly altering a fake model of a surface-to-air missile launch base.
