The dominant element of the conflict between the two countries was armed drones. The Nagorno-Karabakh region, which has been the cause of conflicts between Azerbaijan and Armenia for more than 30 years, came under the rule of Azerbaijan after the last conflict between the two countries.
The tension that started with the Armenian soldiers attacking the Azerbaijani side in the region where a ceasefire was already underway, turned into a serious conflict in a short time with Azerbaijan's response. Mutual conflicts, which turned into a serious war between the two countries, continued for more than a month and caused heavy losses to the Armenian side. According to the statements of experts, Armenia, which lost 40 percent of its military presence, suffered a heavy defeat and the Karabakh region came under Azerbaijani rule again after a long time.
Many statements stating that the most important factor in the victory of Azerbaijan was the superiority achieved by the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in the war were expressed both in the news and by the military authorities. During the conflict, in which armed and unarmed air vehicles produced by Turkey were used, UAVs provided a very effective use despite the extremely limited mobility of warplanes in Karabakh, which is a very difficult geographical region.
It was among the statements that the unmanned aerial vehicles, which significantly affected the outcome of the conflict, caused military casualties of approximately 1 billion dollars for the Armenian side. The extent of the damage that these vehicles, which are produced and purchased at a very low cost compared to their counterparts such as warplanes, in terms of military use, has been revealed once again.
It was also stated that Israeli-made drones, called kamikazes, were used during the conflicts and had a significant impact on these vehicles. These vehicles, which are based on the logic of damaging the target by directly hitting the target with their extremely low cost, and which are quite small in size, have many plus features such as a much more effective flight distance than smart missiles, target identification capability and accuracy. Moreover, the fact that drones play such an effective role in conflicts has rekindled the discussions that these vehicles can be an extremely dangerous force unless precautions are taken.
In addition, some of the discussions focused on Azerbaijan's use of UAVs purchased from Turkey. In particular, in the news published by some broadcasting organizations, the use of Turkey's UAVs in the conflict was the subject of criticism, and statements were made about Turkey's direct involvement in this conflict. Thus, we have also witnessed the debates about who produced the weapons used in war. In particular, we have observed that this dimension of the debate, after numerous wars using weapons produced by a few powerful states, the involvement of different actors in the production of weapons brings to people's mind the question of who produces these weapons used in war.
Although UAVs are low-cost, they attract the attention of all countries in terms of affecting the battlefield as high-tech vehicles. And many countries have accelerated their investments and studies to develop and use this technology. In this area, where China is the largest exporter, many countries are trying to acquire this low-cost but high-impact vehicle in order to increase their capabilities on the battlefield.
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