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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDrones playing big role in Nagorno-Karabakh fight
Drones are playing a big role in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Israeli, Turkish, Russian and locally produced drones and loitering munitions figure in the conflict and account for most losses especially by Armenia, which has lost armored vehicles, multiple rocket launchers and air defense platforms.
Azerbaijan says it also has taken out an Armenian S-300 surface to air missile system, using an Israeli Harop. Armenia denies the claim.
The Harop is a suicide drone manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries (formerly Israel Aircraft Industries) and is classified as a loitering munition. Harop is an anti-radiation drone that can autonomously home in on radio emissions and is optimiszd to go after air defense systems.
Sometimes also called Harpy 2, Harop features a stealthy airframe design making its detection and interception by enemy air defenses difficult. It also has a low thermal signature, meaning that IR weapons cant effectively track Harop, and its sleek body makes visual location and identification difficult.
Harop also has electro-optical guidance so it can be used against non-radiating targets or against radars and missile defenses that are switched off.
Harop can loiter over a battle area for some 6 hours and has a range of around 1,000 kilometers (620 miles). It has a 23-kilogram warhead built into the body of the vehicle. An advantage for the Harop system is that when a radar is turned on, as a loitering system it can autonomously react and attack the source of the radar emissions.
Israel has also supplied a number of other drones and loitering munitions to Azerbaijan including SkyStriker, Orbiter 1K, Orbiter 3, ThunderB, Hermes 450, Hermes 900 and Heron TP.
https://asiatimes.com/2020/10/drones-playing-big-role-in-nagorno-karabakh-fight/
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,481 posts)underpants
(182,271 posts)They sound like flying land mines
Klaralven
(7,510 posts)They can loiter, detect, select, and attack a target without human controls.
uriel1972
(4,261 posts)medical from combat? No small concern in a warzone.
Klaralven
(7,510 posts)Whether it is operated by military or civilians or whether there are civilians in the vicinity is not a factor.
underpants
(182,271 posts)Renew Deal
(81,801 posts)Klaralven
(7,510 posts)An obvious use case would be to have drones loitering around high value targets like anti-aircraft missile installations to detect and attack incoming enemy drones.