WAR Main Armenia Versus Azerbaijan War Thread - Open Hostilities Underway Now

Guy Elste
@guyelster
4hr

No end to fighting in #NagornoKarabakh despite Pompeo talks with #Azerbajian and #Armenia FM's. Local officials accused Azerbaijan's forces of shelling buildings in Stepanakert





Azerbaijan MOD
@wwwmodgovaz
· 52m
On October 24, in the afternoon, the Azerbaijan Air Defense Units shot down a combat aircraft of the Armenian air force in the Gubadli direction of the front.

Baku is in Azerbaijan.
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Per Trump tweet 2 hours ago, cease-fire to begin at midnight.

View: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1320481440560132097?s=20

Congratulations to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who just agreed to adhere to a cease fire effective at midnight. Many lives will be saved. Proud of my team
@SecPompeo
& Steve Biegun &
@WHNSC
for getting the deal done!

Renewed fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh threatens U.S.-backed truce
By Nailia Bagirova, Nvard Hovhannisyan
3 Min Read

BAKU/YEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other on Monday of violating a new U.S.-brokered ceasefire in fighting over the mountain enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, casting doubt over the prospects of the latest international push to end a month of clashes.
Slideshow ( 3 images )
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said in a televised address that he wanted to resolve the conflict “by political and military means” and reiterated a demand that ethnic Armenian forces must agree to leave the region for fighting to stop.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan wrote earlier on his Facebook page that the Armenian side “continued to adhere to the ceasefire.”
The latest fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous part of Azerbaijan populated and controlled by ethnic Armenians, erupted on Sept. 27 and is the worst in the South Caucasus since the 1990s. Hundreds have been killed and two Russian-brokered ceasefires have failed to hold.


World powers want to prevent a wider war that might draw in Turkey, which has voiced strong support for Azerbaijan, and Russia, which has a defence pact with Armenia. The conflict has also strained relations between Ankara and its NATO allies.
A third ceasefire since Oct. 10 was agreed on Sunday after separate talks in Washington between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan. nL1N2HG0R0
Within minutes of its coming into force at 8 a.m. local time (0400 GMT), Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said in a statement that Armenian forces had shelled villages in the Terter and Lachin regions, located at opposite ends of the conflict zone.

Related Coverage
Factbox: Nagorno-Karabakh - old tensions behind renewed fighting
Authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh denied this: the defence ministry said Azeri forces fired missiles on Armenian positions on the northeastern side on the line of contact and the foreign ministry said Azeri warplanes had violated the ceasefire.

Armenia’s defence ministry said in a statement that the Azeri side violated the truce at around 9.10 a.m. local time.
Pompeo has since left Washington, landing on Monday in India on the first leg of a five-day Asian trip.
Armenians regard Nagorno-Karabakh as part of their historic homeland; Azeris consider it illegally occupied land that must be returned to their control. About 30,000 people were killed in a 1991-94 war over the enclave.

Aliyev, in his address, criticised the OSCE Minsk Group that was formed to mediate the conflict. The group, led by France, Russia and the United States, participated in Sunday’s talks and its co-chairs have agreed to meet again with the two foreign ministers in Geneva on Oct. 29.
“For almost 30 years, the Minsk Group co-chairs have tried to reconcile Azerbaijan with the process of freezing the conflict, but we have created a new reality,” Aliyev said. “We are fed up with these negotiations. How long can you negotiate?”

Reporting by Nailia Bagirova in Baku and Nvard Hovhannisyan in Yerevan, additional reporting by Margarita Antidze in Tbilisi, writing by Robin Paxton; Editing by Tomasz Janowski, William Maclean
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

posted for fair use

Russia knocking Turkish drones from Armenian skies
Moscow has unleashed its 'Belladonna' drone killer system in Armenia to counter Azerbaijan's use of Turkish-made Bayraktar armed drones
By STEPHEN BRYENOCTOBER 26, 2020


A Krasukha electronic warfare system at Nikolo-Aleksandrovsky training range in Stavropol Territory. Photo: AFP/Denis Abramov/Sputnik

The electronic warfare system is known as “Belladonna”, a poisonous plant that gets its name from Renaissance women who used its extract for tinctures to dilate the pupils of their eyes, ostensibly to make them more attractive.

While Belladonna translates to “beautiful woman” in English, in Russian it has a second meaning: it is the name of a Russian electronic jamming system now credited with knocking out at least nine Turkish Bayraktar armed drones used by Azerbaijan to target Armenia.

If true – and no one has denied it – the system is now operating around the sensitive Russian military base at Gyumri in Armenia, far from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict area.

In Russian, Belladonna is known as “Krasukha.” The Krasukha jamming system was rushed to Armenia to counter the successful use of both armed drones such as the Bayraktar and suicide drones like the Israel-made loitering munition known as Harop.

The Turks have heavily advertised the success of Bayraktar in three theaters – Syria, Libya and now in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Turkey and Azerbaijan have released numerous “kill videos” of the drone blowing up tanks, armored vehicles and trucks – and killing many soldiers in the process.

Bayraktar is a fairly conventional armed drone that is navigated to the target area using GPS. The drone’s Wescam MX-15D multispectral camera system is made in Canada while its BRP-Rotax engine that generates about 100 horse-power is produced in Austria.

Canada has halted the sale of the Wescam camera system to Turkey because of its use on Bayraktar drones in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. But Canada has been silent about Rotax engine exports, although the Austrian company is owned by Canada’s Bombardier Recreational Products.

No doubt there are other Bayraktar parts that are made in Europe, the United States and elsewhere.


An official walks among objects which Armenia presented as captured and downed Azeri drones during recent armed clashes on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, in Yerevan, July 21, 2020. Photo: AFP/Karen Minasyan

The Krasukha is a broadband multifunctional jamming station manufactured by KRET (“Concern Radio Electronic Technologies”), part of the Rostec Group. Since 2014, the company has been under US sanctions for its activities in Ukraine and in Crimea.

KRET consists of more than 70 member companies in electronics spread out across Russia while KRET itself acts as a manufacturing group holding company with about 50,000 employees

Krakushka was designed primarily to protect areas in and around Russia’s military bases where its powerful transmitter can blank out airborne radars. The Russians, however, have also found Krakuska useful in counteracting armed drones.

Krakushka was used successfully in defending the Hmeymim Air Base in Syria that was attacked by armed, if not primitive, swarming drones. An earlier strike by such drones had caused significant damage at the base, destroying some aircraft, and alarmed Russia’s military about a significant vulnerability at Hmeymim.

So much so, in fact, that Russia’s defense ministry brought back some of the drones that crashed and complained bitterly about the spread of drone technology in the Middle East.

The Russians might also have complained about China, which supplied the engines, the cameras and the GPS receivers and radios in the drones that were home-built by ISIS and others. But, of course, they did not want to stir trouble with their Beijing ally. For the record, the Russians said the swarming drones caused no damage.

The Russian press claims that at least nine Bayraktar drones were shot down on or about October 19. Some photos of the drones that crashed have been released by Armenia and have appeared in the Russian press, principally at Avia.pro.

The photos show smashed up Bayraktar drones, but no sign they were hit by ground fire. According to the press reports, the Krakushka jamming system caused the crashes.

The version of Krakushka being used in Armenia is the latest model Krakushka-4. The system is truck-mounted, but is used primarily to defend Russian bases. So far as is known, it is not being used by Armenian forces, nor is it being deployed in the Nagorno-Karabakh area.

Krakushka jams communications in the same way it blanks out radars; it does not, however, control the jammed drones. It would appear that the Bayraktar drone does not have a “return to home” capability if it loses contact with its base station and if GPS signals are jammed. Most drones with the capability to return to their home systems rely on GPS to do so.

The Russians have made clear that the Turkish drones were shot down in the airspace around the Gyumri military base, which in Armenia is near the Turkish border and about 487 kilometers from the nearest major Azerbaijani base at Ganja.

The reported communications range of the Turkish drones is 150 kilometers, so the Azerbaijanis and the Turks would have had to move their launch point elsewhere to be within operational range unless the communications range is greater than reported.

But the more profound question is why would the Azerbaijanis and the Turks fly armed drones near Russian bases, risking Russia’s entrance into the conflict. Gyumri serves as home to the 102nd Russian military base controlled by Russia’s Southern Military District.

Were the drones sent on a one-way mission to fly over the area to put the Russians on notice? It is interesting that in the photos of the crashed drones there is no sign of any air-to-ground missiles such as the MAM-L smart micro munition built by Turkey’s Rokestan.

Neither Azerbaijan nor Turkey has made any statement about having nine of their drones knocked out in or around Gyumri. The Russian government likewise has not made an official statement on the downed drones.

At some point, I hope Erdogan does something worthy of another power stepping in. That is probably wishful thinking, considering that the only three powers that could step in are France, Russia and us/USA.

northern watch said:

View attachment 228294

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Well looks like Russia is getting involved View: https://mobile.twitter.com/EndGameWW3/status/1320770583852994561

danielboon said:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1321072372879921152

View: https://twitter.com/ELINTNews/status/1321072372879921152

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Yikes, looks like a bullseye on the gas tank?

somdwatcher said:

At some point, I hope Erdogan does something worthy of another power stepping in. That is probably wishful thinking, considering that the only three powers that could step in are France, Russia and us/USA.

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I think that if Armenia is invaded that will force Russia to intervene

northern watch said:

I think that if Armenia is invaded that will force Russia to intervene

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I still have a gut feeling that this is inevitable at this point. ceasefires and peace talks are not working and escalation continues. Also I'm quite worried about the fighting happening along the border with Iran and their possible involvement if provoked.

Armenian representative in Greece: Greeks are ready to fight in Artsakh but we will not accept them
by GUEST BLOGGER - Romanos Kontogiannidis is a correspondent for Ethnos.

According to the member of the Armenian National Committee of Greece, Hovik Kasapian, about 70 people from Greece have been registered and intend to go to Artsakh and fight, or contribute in other ways to the war effort against Azerbaijan’s invasion attempt.

Describing the interest of Greeks to help the Armenian people fighting in Artsakh, Kasapian said in his interview with Ethnos that many people call to ask how they can help by offering money and medical supplies.

There are also those who intend to go to Artsakh to help in other ways, even to fight on the side of the Armenians.

At the same time, the number of Armenians in Greece who have been registered and are ready to go to Artsakh to help in any way they can in the war against the Azeris and the jihadists brought there by Turkey has reached about 70 people. The list, which even includes women, has been sent to the Armenian embassy in Greece and they will decide whether such a mission will take place.

“I hope the Armenian army completes its mission and the war ends now that we are talking. All those in the list have clearly expressed their intention to go to the area and help in any way they can, motivated by their love for the homeland. It’s not just frontline battles. There are also auxiliary forces, water supply assistance, watchtowers and other unarmed services. Armenia does not ask and do not wait for fighters from Greece because no matter how ambitious and courageous someone is, he can be reckless if he is not educated. The Armenian embassy will decide whether such a mission will take place, but I believe that such a thing will not be requested,” said Kasapian.

Regarding the presence of Greeks in the relevant list, he said that there are some Greek names in it.

“I was personally called by a Pontian living in Greece who came from Armenia, who asked to go and fight in Artsakh. However, we do not want to put Greek foreign policy in adventures. The presence of Greeks in a war so far from its borders involves great risks and can be blamed on Greece. This is not a football match,” said Kasapian.

According to him, the mobilization of the Armenians diaspora – including the Armenians in Greece – is huge since the start of the crisis in Artsakh. It is noteworthy that so far about 121 million euros have been raised in just three weeks in the Himnadram global bank account, which has existed since 1993, and the fundraising continues. About 300,000 euros of this money came from Armenians in Greece, while also among those who contributed are Greeks.

Also, Armenians from Greece offer to give and send to Artsakh medical equipment.

At the same time, as Kasapian states, the moral support offered by the Armenian diaspora in Greece to the struggling people of Artsakh is enormous.

“We are organizing rallies, we are marching, while the help of ESIEA [Association of Editors of Athens Daily Newspapers] was also important, as it hosted the President of Armenia in an online press conference. We also meet with local leaders and give our fight through social media” Kasapian said.

According to Kasapian, at the moment, despite the firepower of Azerbaijan, the Armenian army maintains its positions. Artsakh’s casualties, including soldiers and civilians, so far amount to about 800.

“There are more casualties among Azeris. There are ISIS jihadists among them and this can be seen from the fact that the Azeris do not take their corpses from the battlefield. The Artsakh conflict is in a rural area with very low buildings,” he said.

“Some houses have been destroyed and monuments and churches have been damaged. The civilians have left the warzone and have been transferred to the areas near the border with Armenia, but also within Armenian territory. Positions in Armenia have also been hit by Turkish-made drones. So far, about 200 such drones have been shot down,” Kasapian concluded.

Russia-Turkey Competition Escalates across Theaters

By Isabel Ivanescu and Ezgi Yazici
Iswresearch.org

Key Takeaway: Competition between Russia and Turkey continued to escalate in 2020. The parties redoubled their commitments to opposing sides in Syria and Libya, and Turkey opened a new theater of competition in the Caucasus. Each of these conflicts is unique and discrete but must be understood within the cross-theater dynamics of Russia-Turkey competition.



Russia and Turkey are supporting belligerents on opposite sides of three conflicts – in Syria, in Libya, and in Nagorno-Karabakh – and are competing for influence in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Russia-Turkey competition is not a new phenomenon but has escalated as both countries have adopted more ambitious foreign policy objectives and expanded their regional influence in the past decade.

The situation in Syria is precarious; Syria remains a priority effort for both Russia and Turkey while the two parties are increasingly at odds. Turkey views Syria as core to its national security, fearing both a renewed refugee influx and autonomous Kurdish governance on the Turkish border. For Russia, Syria is a critical venue for projecting power in the Middle East and Mediterranean and pressuring the United States. Turkish occupation of swathes of northern Syria and Russian freedom of action throughout regime-held areas has resulted in a shaky balance. Turkey and Russia have been facing off in opposition-held greater Idlib to pressuring one another into a negotiated settlement since mid-September 2020.[1] Turkish and Russian proxies are also manning opposing, but stable front lines in Syria’s northeast. Moscow or Ankara must alter this balance, through diplomacy or force, if either is to achieve its objectives. The Russian air force carried out one of the deadliest-ever Russian airstrikes in Syria targeting a Turkish proxy in Idlib on October 26 in a possible play to shift the situation in Syria or impose costs on Turkey for actions elsewhere.[2]

Russia and Turkey back opposing parties in Libya and will likely remain militarily engaged despite a recent ceasefire. Turkey intervened in Libya in January 2020 to halt the advance of forces backed by geopolitical opponents Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Russia on Tripoli, while carving out a Turkish maritime sphere of influence in the eastern Mediterranean. Turkey’s intervention derailed Russia’s campaign in Libya but produced intensified Russian engagement. The Kremlin remains committed to establishing permanent Russian basing and access to Libya’s oil supply, even amid constraints imposed by Russia’s own local partners and regional allies. Russia and Turkey are locked in an armed race for influence in Libya below the level of outright conflict. The parties are unlikely to pull away from Libya even while a purported “permanent ceasefire” signed by their respective local partners on October 23 calls for the withdrawal of all foreign forces.[3]

Recent hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh are both born of and further fueling Russia-Turkey competition. Turkey coordinated with Azerbaijan to reignite the long-standing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over disputed territory Nagorno-Karabakh in September.[4] Ankara sees the conflict as a low-cost opportunity to solidify a Turkish foothold in the Caucasus and challenge growing bilateral ties between Baku and Moscow while profiting from arms sales to Azerbaijan. Russia brokered two failed ceasefires since fighting began in September 2020 in a bid to keep both Armenia and Azerbaijan within its sphere of influence. The Kremlin seeks rapid de-escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh with minimum Russian investment. Russia’s neutrality is an opportunity for Ankara to cash in rapid Azerbaijani territorial gains for regional influence without triggering a Russian escalation. A new ceasefire—brokered by the US without Russian involvement—went into effect on October 26 with both Armenian and Azerbaijani violations reported within hours.[5] The Kremlin may attempt to compel a resolution by force in response to Turkey’s growing military role and the United States’ growing diplomatic role in the conflict, reasserting Russia’s role as the sole powerbroker in the Caucasus. ISW has not observed indicators of an imminent Russian deployment to Armenia, however.

Developments in Syria, Libya, and Nagorno-Karabakh cannot be analyzed in a vacuum, but must instead be contextualized in the landscape of cross-theater Russia-Turkey competition. The two revisionist powers will likely continue to search for a comparative advantage, including by establishing new and advantageous theaters for competition or further investing in existing theaters. Seemingly inexplicable Russian or Turkish decisions in one theater may be readily understandable when considered alongside developments in another theater. A Russian or Turkish decision to commit resources in a new area, if not obviously compatible with policy objectives, may well result from a desire to obtain leverage over the other party. Whether Russia-Turkey competition de-escalates through negotiations or escalates kinetically, it will have profound and lasting effects in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Caucasus.



[1] Turkey Reinforces Positions in Greater Idlib to Pressure Russia into Negotiations
[2] Russian Airstrikes Kill Dozens of Turkish-Backed Rebels in Syria
[3] Libya Cease-Fire Raises Hopes for Full Peace Deal
[4] Erdogan Seeks to Upend Kremlin-Backed Status Quo in Nagorno-Karabakh
[5] Nagorno-Karabakh: U.S.-Brokered Cease-Fire Falters Soon After It Starts

Small Outpost is Russia’s First Visible Aid to Armenia
The base is small, but would act as a tripwire deterring Azerbaijan from expanding its offensive into Armenian territory.





By Ani Mejlumyan for Eurasianet
2 hours ago




Russia and Armenia are members of a mutual defense pact. Kremlin.ru
Russia has reportedly set up a small military outpost on the border of Armenia in an apparent attempt to keep Azerbaijan’s offensive from spilling over into Armenian territory.
Foreign journalists have documented the small post, consisting of a few tents and with a Russian flag flying above it. It is located next to Tegh, the last village in Armenia on the road to Lachin, the narrow corridor connecting the country to Nagorno-Karabakh.
Neither Russia nor Armenia has officially confirmed the presence of the post at Tegh. No Armenian media has reported on the outpost.

A photo by TASS photographer Sergei Bobylev shows a Russian field camp set up near Tegh, close to the Lachin pass which connects Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia. Azerbaijani forces have made advances towards the pass in recent days.

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Over the past week, Azerbaijani forces have advanced to close to Lachin (which Armenians call Berdzor), the essential lifeline for Karabakh. It is the only road available for both civilians and military forces to get in and out of the territory, which Armenians have controlled since the early 1990s and which Azerbaijan is seeking to retake.
At an Oct. 27 briefing, Armenian defense ministry spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan said that Armenian forces had repelled an attack on the area.
“Today, the enemy attempted to carry out attacks in the direction of Berdzor,” he told reporters. It also attempted to approach the border of the Republic of Armenia from the southern direction. All of the attempts were thwarted.”
Soon after the fighting started on Sep. 27, Armenia set up its own outposts in Khndzoresk, a bit further into Armenian territory.
But the Russian deployment is a much more significant deterrence for Azerbaijan. In spite of its small size it would act as a tripwire deterring Baku from triggering a more substantial Russian response.
Russia’s relatively hands-off approach has been the source of much disappointment and speculation among Armenians, and there had been multiple reports of a Russian military presence in southern Armenia.
news Nagorno-Karabakh Briefing | Oct. 28
Read more


On Oct. 20, news website 1in.am reported, referring to unnamed sources, that “Russian troops have joined Armenian forces to guard Armenia’s borders. According to our information their number is not small.”
But another news site, Infocom.am, cited sources in the regional Syunik government saying that the only Russian troop presence in the region were the border guards who have been patrolling Armenia’s border with Iran since 1995.
Russia’s efforts are welcomed by Armenians, however insignificant or discreet they might be.
Many in Armenia have become disillusioned with the lax attitude that much of the international community has taken toward the conflict. But Russia has been mostly spared that criticism.
The president of the Armenia-backed de facto Nagorno Karabakh government, Arayik Harutyunyan, issued an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Oct. 23. He thanked Putin for mentioning, in a recent speech, the Sumgait pogroms of 1988, when Azerbaijanis attacked ethnic Armenians living in that city; it was one of the key precipitating events of the war that resulted in Armenian control over Karabakh and the surrounding territories.
“This conflict did not begin as a conflict just between two governments over a territory, it began with interethnic confrontations,” Putin said at the Valdai discussion club on Oct. 20. “Sadly, this is a fact, when first in Sumgait and then in Nagorno-Karabakh brutal crimes were committed against the Armenian people.”
Harutyunyan responded: “Unfortunately, Azerbaijan continues its genocidal policy to this day. ... You [Putin] are the personality and the head of state who has a huge reputation all over the world and in our region. Taking this into account, I ask you to make all possible efforts to stop the war in the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict zone and resume political processes.”


news In Nagorno-Karabakh, Russia Faces an Unenviable Task
Read more

Putin’s other comments have been more ambiguous, however. He has referred to both Armenia and Azerbaijan as valued Russian partners. And he has specified that Russia’s treaty obligation to defend Armenia – both are members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization – applies only to Armenia itself, not to Armenian-controlled territory in and around Karabakh.
The topic of Russian aid has been a hot one in Armenia, and there are widespread rumors of secret Russian military aid, though there is no evidence to support them.
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev also has repeatedly claimed that Armenia is being supplied with new weapons.
In an Oct. 27 interview with Italian television, Aliyev said that “there are 5,000 Russian troops at the base in Gyumri, and according to the information we have, the base maintains regular arms supply to Armenian armed forces.”
“The most state-of-the-art weapons are being dispatched to Armenia every day,” he said on Oct. 25.
“We have a list of such weapons. We have data about the flights: when, where from the flight was performed to Yerevan, and which cargo it carried.”

Status-6
@Archer83Able
1m

#BREAKING: Armenian PM Pashinyan confirmed that Russian border guards have been deployed on the Armenian border with Karabakh. (RIA)

Status-6
@Archer83Able
2m

Replying to
@Archer83Able
Pashinyan: "Russian border guards are on the border of Armenia with Turkey and Iran. That is, it has always been so. And now, as a result of the latest development of events, Russian border guards are also on the southeastern and southwestern borders of Armenia."

We urge the residents of the Azerbaijani settlements whose houses are close to the military facilities to leave so that as a result of our retaliatory actions they do not become a human shields - Artsakh President spox Vahram Poghosyan

I have to tell you.

I was just on #Breaking twitter, and I saw this video (apparently from Turkey, at least it looked like it). And it was of a box truck with a ramp up into the back doors. There looked like there were naked people inside, and a young woman crouched on the ramp screaming, "I don't want to." A person from the truck made her get up and took her into the truck with the rest of them. There were men in suits outside the truck and someone shut and locked the doors and took away the ramp. Then he took a big hose thingy and put it into some kind of small opening in the truck door, and the truck started up. Clouds started billowing out as people were screaming. So I quick went to save it and it suddenly vanished. Just letting you know.

danielboon said:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1321486277041074177

View: https://twitter.com/ELINTNews/status/1321486277041074177

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I can't help but think we may face the same kind of drone warfare here in the states. and that thought is terrifying. There's nowhere to hide and it costs virtually nothing to have swarms of them. (anyone that thinks you can down military drones with a shotgun is an idiot BTW)

Starrkopf said:

I can't help but think we may face the same kind of drone warfare here in the states. and that thought is terrifying. There's nowhere to hide and it costs virtually nothing to have swarms of them. (anyone that thinks you can down military drones with a shotgun is an idiot BTW)

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Yeah ... we like to think an armed populace is a check on govt power, and that may have worked historically, but in the techno age of drones and standoff weapons a large but disorganized populace may be easier to control than we imagine. The govt owns the lines of communication and information and has a technological advantage we can't even really fathom.

I know, right? The only thing else I can say is the video looked a little old; and who the hell wears suits anymore? Maybe it's something that happened in the somewhat recent past, but I don't know. It's appalling, whatever it was.

Starrkopf said:

I can't help but think we may face the same kind of drone warfare here in the states. and that thought is terrifying. There's nowhere to hide and it costs virtually nothing to have swarms of them. (anyone that thinks you can down military drones with a shotgun is an idiot BTW)

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Full article posted on this weeks' WoW thread...


Tyler Rogoway
@Aviation_Intel
26m

These kinds of ominous drone alerts belonged only in dystopian fiction just a short time ago. Another sign of the times! State Department is now putting out warnings of impending drone attacks and how to survive them:
View: https://twitter.com/Aviation_Intel/status/1321529681892397056?s=20

Starrkopf said:

I can't help but think we may face the same kind of drone warfare here in the states. and that thought is terrifying. There's nowhere to hide and it costs virtually nothing to have swarms of them. (anyone that thinks you can down military drones with a shotgun is an idiot BTW)

Click to expand...

Yup.

The J6P counter-measures are currently missing in action - going to take some sort of offensive air asset, or, frequency jamming device - ground or air based - or, identify and neutralize the drone control pods/centers. Any active frequency jammer signals will light up like a Christmas tree on attacker's detection and targeting gear.

Offensive J6P ops - not easy nor inexpensive to build/transport/deploy-distribute/support/manpower/operators/logistics/hide.

It is this superior look-down drone capability that is allowing the precision targeting and elimination of normally less detectable/targetable hidden ground targets/groups/equipments. Eliminate Azerbaijan's drone advantage, and the Armenians would have a better opportunity - Russia could supply/staff/run Russian drones against Azerbaijani targets, but will not, at this time. Russia could also deploy anti-drone defensive gear - this may be the next path that they pursue - make it very expensive for Turkey to manufacture/resupply Azerbaijanian forces with many new drones, only to continue to have them knocked out of the air before completing any mission.


intothegoodnight

Question: If you see drones buzzing around your house, will you shoot them down?

intothatgoodnight said:

Russia could also deploy anti-drone defensive gear - this may be the next path that they pursue - make it very expensive for Turkey to manufacture/resupply Azerbaijanian forces with many new drones, only to continue to have them knocked out of the air before completing any mission.

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They have already begun doing so. and it's been mentioned in this thread. it's some kind of electronic warfare device that jams the control signals or something like that. it looks very sophisticated, and of course would be a high value target.

I seriously doubt J6P could field anything of that sophistication. It's concerning to me because Armenia has a real military and virtually none of their SAM equipment is capable of targeting tiny drones even their S-300 stuff seems inadequate. Anyway I only mentioned it as food for thought. The idea of having something like that used against you is quite sobering, the only consolation is you would be dead before you know what hit you.

mzkitty said:

Question: If you see drones buzzing around your house, will you shoot them down?

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No, if they fire a missile you won't even know it was coming, loitering munitions would kamikaze into you at high speeds and be almost like a missile strike itself. These fly at high altitudes and you wouldn't be able to hit them they are nothing like civilian drones that fly low and slow.