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Azerbaijani drone
The Artsakh Defense Army shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) belonging to Azerbaijan’s military in the north-eastern (Talish) section of the Line of Contact.
The Azerbaijani drone launched to carry out a reconnaissance operation was shot down at around 6:30 p.m. local time on Monday, the Artsakh Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry has also released photos of the downed aerial vehicle.
Israeli-based Aeronautics company has published a stock communique according to which the department for export control in the Ministry of Defense temporarily blocked a deal to supply Orbitier K1 drones to an important client, haqqin.az reports citing NEWSru.co.il.
The document says that the supplies worth $20 million have to be implemented in 2017-18. The company is not naming a client, but says this is a country having Ba credit rating according to Moody’s which also has close economic ties to Israel, Bizportal reported.
In addition, this country is a home to a plant producing drone repair parts under Aeronautics license.
The website says that there are only two countries among Aeronautics clients – Serbia and Azerbaijan, but only Azerbaijan hosts Aeronautics plant. However, the document does not name Azerbaijan directly.
NEWSru.co.il addressed defense ministry for comments, but has not received a response.
An article published in Israel’s Maariv newspaper several weeks ago said Israeli defense ministry is investigating the complaint saying Aeronautics Defense Systems refused to demonstrate the capabilities of new drones on Armenian targets as requested by Azerbaijan.
The Israeli company Elbit Systems, which has set up the military drones “Hermes 900” for the Israeli army, could sell these drones again to Azerbaijan, Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Brazil and Switzerland. Information provided by NexsSru.co.il. The site also informs that Azerbaijan has 12 drones “Hermes 450” bought from Israel in 2006. In 2016 Israel also supplied 15 drones “Hermes 900” to Azerbaijan. These killer drones that Baku regularly uses on the front of the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) against the Armenian positions can fly over 9,000 meters above sea level and can carry 350 kg loads.
Israel, which despite the genocide of the Nazi Jewish people during the Second World War, has still not recognized the genocide suffered by Armenians in the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923, continues to deliver to Azerbaijan Weapons that will be used against Armenians in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and Armenia. Business before ethics …
Krikor Amirzayan
The Israeli Ministry of Defense is conducting an investigation against Aeronautics Defense Systems (ADS), a company manufacturing unmanned drones, a correspondent for the Russian Komersant, Kiril Krivosheev, says in a recent article.
In an earlier report, the Israeli Maariv expressed concerns that the company’s employees based in Tel Aviv might have joined the airstrikes against Armenian defense positions in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) in April 2016. Though the company dismisses the accusations, the cooperation with Azerbaijan has been long known as an accomplished fact, writes the Russian journalist.
The specialists managing the drone were earlier reported to have rejected the offer, leaving the task to top representatives of the company.
A complaint filed recently with the Ministry claims that the Aeronautics Defense Systems team, which left for Azerbaijan to conclude the Orbiter 1K drone’s sales agreement, was asked target an Armenian military objective by using the system.
According to the Israeli publication, the two Israeli specialists operating the drone refused to conduct the deadly airstrike, standing firmly their ground even after facing personal threats. High-ranking representatives of the company later moved to equip and use the vehicle themselves. Due to a lack of experience, however, the two unmanned vehicles did not hit the right target, falling short of inflicting material or human damage. The document claimed that one of the vehicles hit an object lying 100 meters away from Armenian defense positions.
One of the specialists has reportedly left the company, with the other planning to step down soon.
Krivosheev cites the Armenian media reports confirming July 7 as the day of the attack (citing their own sources). Azerbaijan’s defense office has issued no official statement in that connection; neither did they respond to Komersant.
The Israeli ministry also refrained from comments. “The Ministry of Defense does not normally comment upon reports addressing military exports. The issue is in the process of verification by the corresponding the Defense Ministry departments,” reads the agency’s response.
“Even if engineers of Aeronautics Defense Systems left for Azerbaijan, they weren’t accompanied by Israeli scientists,” the Ministry added.
The Komersant source close to the Israeli government described the news story in Maariv as an “extraordinary” report. “Nothing of the kind had ever happened before. The non-interference principle applying to foreign conflicts is of a pivotal value for the Israeli military industries. I do want to believe the report will not be confirmed. Should, however, it prove true, the military agency will certainly enforce sanctions against the company.”
No known specific timeframes for concluding the investigation are reported.
The website notes that Azerbaijan made its first use of Israeli unmanned drones under military conditions in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2016. After the end of the confrontations on April 14, the Israeli-Armenian Diaspora conducted a protest outside the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, making calls for ending the weapons sale to the country.
“The need to halt Azerbaijan’s armament is our community’s coordinated decision. As for the article in Maariv, we are waiting until the investigation comes to a close, as there is no common opinion here. Some Armenians think the operators who refused to hit a strike are real heroes. Others do not believe the newspaper, doubting that it is just an attempt to spoil the Armenian-Israeli relations which have quite improved recently,” Artyom Chernamoryan, the head of the local Armenian NGO Nairi, is quoted as telling Komersant.
The website further cites Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s 2016 statement saying that the country signed US $5 billion worth military industry agreements with Israel last December (adding that most of the deals have been already accomplished). The military agreements implemented between Moscow and Baku over the past five years are worth an estimated $ 4 billion or more, according to the publication.
Israeli-manufactured drone Iran shot down, which was based in Azerbaijan (AFP)
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Yossi Melman reports in Maariv that the Israeli drone manufacturer, Aeronautics, sought a contract to sell military drones to Azerbaijan. Though the Orbiter 1K drone the Azeris contemplated buying had been tested in battle, in order to seal the deal, they demanded to see the drone attack an Armenian army position. The government even planned to broadcast video of the attack on national TV. But there was a wrinkle in the plan. The drone operators who were to orchestrate the flight and attack refused to carry it out.
Aeronautics executives, desperate to seal the lucrative deal, pressured the pilots, warning them they would torpedo an important commercial sale. But the drone operators remained firm in their refusal. The executives were forced to arm, fly and conduct the entire mission themselves. Though they attempted to attack the Armenians, the flight failed and no one was injured. Though not for lack of trying.
One of the two pilots who refused to carry out orders quit the company and the second is in the process of leaving.
Melman says that a complaint has been filed with the Israeli defense ministry (he doesn’t say by whom) because the export license granted to the company explicitly prohibits Israeli personnel taking part in any military action between hostile parties. In other words, Israel just sells them the weapons to kill each other. It doesn’t do the killing directly. This way it can keep accusations of military intervention at arm’s length. The ministry doesn’t permit either direct or indirect intervention of this kind. Though of course selling the parties these weapons is a form of intervention.
This is a delicate matter both for the Israeli arms exporter and for the defense ministry since Azerbaijan is a critical Israeli ally in the region. At a joint press conference, the country’s president boasted that he’d bought $5-billion worth of Israeli weapons to fuel his ongoing war with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh. An even more important element in the relationship for the Israelis is that Azerbaijan is perfectly situated geographically for spying on its neighbor, Iran. Israel spies are active inside the country, as are Iranian spies. The country has also leased an air base to the Israeli military to serve as a refueling station for Israeli aircraft should they attack Iran. Israel also carries out clandestine spying missions inside Iran using Israeli drones based in Azerbaijan.
As my recent piece published at Middle East Eye shows, Israel does intervene directly in the wars of client states. In this case it was on behalf of Libyan strongman, Gen. Khalifa Haftar. In the Azerbaijan case, the intervention was perhaps not sanctioned directly (and therefore problematic) by the defense ministry. But the fact that Aeronautics senior executives were willing to do it in order to seal the deal shows that rules and regulations were made to be broken as far as Israeli arms exports are concerned.
Source: https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2017/08/13/israeli-arms-exporter-demonstrated-drone-azeri-buyers-attacking-armenian-army-positions/
Defense army of the Artsakh Republic (Nagorno Karabakh Republic) shot down an Azerbaijani ORBITER type drone detected flying over the eastern direction of the Line of Contact between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan on Saturday at around 12:15.
According to the release, issued by the Defense Army, frontline units of Karabakh Army ‘’continue to watchfully control the Artsakh air and land borders and resort to preventive measures upon necessity.’
STEPANAKERT. – The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Ministry of Defense (NKR/Artsakh MOD) has refuted the “reports” on a downed drone.
“This is disinformation,” the NKR MOD press service said in a statement. “The [respective] information is false.”
Azerbaijani media had claimed that this drone was downed on Monday.
STEPANAKERT. – Antiaircraft units of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR/Artsakh) Defense Army have downed in Artsakh skies, on Thursday at around 11pm, yet another Azerbaijani unmanned combat air vehicle, informed the Defense Army press service.
Incidentally, the Armenian News-NEWS.am video camera captured that moment.
At that time, NKR President Bako Sahakyan’s talk with the visiting Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group Co-Chairs was still in progress, in capital city Stepanakert
PanARMENIAN.Net Clashes are currently underway on the contact line between the Artsakh Republic and Azerbaijan.
During the military actions, the Nagorno Karabakh Defense Army units destroyed one more tank in the northeastern direction of the contact line, one BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launcher in the northern direction, and one unmanned aerial vehicle in Martakert direction.
In adition, one unit of engineering equipment was destroyed (the type is not specified).
On the night of April 1-2, Azerbaijani armed forces initiated overt offensive operations in the southern, southeastern and northeastern directions of the line of contact with Nagorno Karabakh, using artillery, armored fighting vehicles and air force equipment among other weapons.
As many as 18 Karabakh servicemen were killed and 35-40 were wounded in the course of military operations.
As of April 3, the Azerbaijani side has lost 15 tanks and over 5 armored vehicles, including an IFV, as well as 2 military helicopters and 3 unmanned aerial vehicles.
One Karabakh tank has been destroyed so far.
Turkey has said its warplanes have shot down an unidentified aircraft which intruded into its airspace near the border with Syria.
Media reports quote officials as saying the aircraft was a drone. There are no further details so far, according to BBC News.
The Syrian government is known to be operating drones, as do the US-led coalition against Islamic State and Russia.
More than two million Syrians have fled to Turkey in four years of conflict.
The Turkish military said the unknown aircraft detected near the border had been warned three times before it was shot down “in accordance with rules of engagement”.
Earlier this month Turkey accused Russian jets – which have recently joined the air battle against Syrian rebel group – of violating its airspace.
The intrusions also drew condemnation from NATO.