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Goliath sling
An internal political crisis breaks out in Armenia after the outbreak of war in late September Yerevan he lost Against Azerbaijan, and was forced to sign a peace agreement that essentially gave up the territories occupied thirty years ago in Nagorno-Karabakh, in the Armenian name of Aracha.
The capital of the region, Stepanakert and its surroundings, has remained in Armenian hands and will be controlled by Russian peacekeepers. However, the other districts internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory must be handed over to Baku by Yerevan. As a result, thousands of Armenians fled and many burned their houses earlier.
Armenians often described the war as a fight between David and Goliath, especially in light of the fact that Turkey was also behind Azerbaijan. The Armenians, however, did not expect Goliath to have the sling in his hands.
Cheap and deadly
The use of drones has become more prevalent in the last twenty years since the United States deployed the Predator drone at the beginning of the 2001 war in Afghanistan. The remotely controlled drone not only reduced US military losses, it lived up to its promise in accuracy and mortality.
It is also much more profitable to produce than a fighter-bomber.
Drones have become weapons that can also be built from commercial versions, transformed into reconnaissance drones or so-called kamikaze. The Jihadist Organization of the Islamic State has also deployed homemade kamikaze machines in Syria and Iraq.
Seeing the cost of producing drones and their effectiveness in combat, China, Turkey, and Israel, among others, also set out to produce military drones. Azerbaijan bought the latter two in preparation for the Nagorno-Karabakh war.
Drones are cheap options for small countries as much more expensive weapons for their enemies. TO DESTROY.
And Nagorno-Karabakh is an excellent example of how these relatively inexpensive devices can change the outcome of a war if one of the parties is not prepared for them.
High-altitude predators
In the first phase of the war, Azerbaijan converted old Soviet-type An-2 aircraft into drones, which were ordered bait, Armenian air defense crossfire. And the Armenian air defense opened fire on enemy aircraft, not knowing that it would reveal its position to the real predators, the military drones.
This was just the beginning: drones were increasingly eliminating Armenian jobs, shooting trenches, destroying weapons and armor systems.
The drone deployment in Nagorno-Karabakh also highlighted the obsolescence of mainly Soviet-made Armenian air defenses (including Sz-300 systems), which could do nothing against the smaller size, technological sophistication and agility of the aircraft. unmanned aerial vehicles.
By disabling air defenses, ground forces are rendered defenseless, pursued by drones like field mouse projectiles.
Armenia lost at least 185 of its tanks, most fired by drones. Additionally, several other weapon systems were destroyed.
An overview of Armenia’s visually confirmed losses:
– 185 T-72
– 90 armored fighting vehicles
– 182 artillery pieces
– 73 multiple rocket launchers
– 26 SAMs (including 5x S-300 and 1x Tor)
– 14 radars / jammers
– 1 Su-25
– 4 UAV
– 451 vehicles40% of its strength before the war.
– Oryx (@oryxspioenkop) November 10, 2020
And with the elimination of armor and firing ranges, a much larger Azerbaijani army made its way unstoppably. According to the military technology blog Oryx
more than a third of the Armenian military power was lost there.
Air superiority over oil money
According to observers, the recent war did not erupt as a series of coincidences, but was deliberately staged by Azerbaijan. Yerevan was happy with the status quo, but Baku thinks of the situation very differently, never forgetting the great war of thirty years ago, from which he emerged as a loser. The intention to recover the area was alive in Azerbaijani society.
With huge oil reserves, Baku assembled a whole fleet of drones, mainly the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 capable of carrying four precision missiles, as well as the Israeli Orbiter 1K and Harop kamikaze drones.
The videos below give an idea of how devastating these tactical tools can be.
The Orbiter 1K looks like a smooth hobby drone capable of causing brutal destruction among ground infantry.
The Harop can be launched with more than one mobile launcher, it can stay in the air for a long time and then hit the target.
And the Bayraktar TB2 attacks from a great distance with precision similar to larger targets, even armored ones.
Already at the beginning of the war, Azerbaijan published images of the drone attacks on the street projectors to ignite the atmosphere of war and promise the promise of victory.
In the meantime, imagine how an Armenian soldier can feel in the trenches knowing that he is being chased by a machine driving miles away. And when you find out, it’s too late.
Experts say that the use of drones on a large number of battlefields will fundamentally change warfare. The basis of its diffusion is proportional to the fact that its acquisition and production costs are decreasing. Ground forces will not become obsolete, but the development of drones and defense against them will play a key role in the war of the near future.
(Cover image: Bridge hit by an Azeri bomb in Nagorno-Karabakh on October 14, 2020. Photo: Alex McBride / Getty Images Hungary)
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