Aaron Stein
In late 2020, drones burst onto the national security scene in a new way. During the Nagorno-Karabakh war between Turkey and Armenia that year, videos of Turkish long-endurance TB-2 and loitering Harop drones identifying and striking Armenian air defense systems flooded the internet. Even more sophisticated Russian systems like the S-300 were marked, monitored, and destroyed by Azerbaijan’s force of Turkish and Israeli drones. These images garnered lots of media attention at the time, and helped inaugurate a new role for drone warfare—hunting air defense systems.
The videos were more revelatory than innovative. The Israelis and, later, the Americans have used drones to spot air defense sites since the technology began to proliferate in the 1970s. However, with age comes innovation—specifically through the use of data links and high-definition video to share information with regional “shooters” and then to “market” success to an audience eager to understand how the war is unfolding.
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