Azerbaijani drone flew over Armenia unimpeded?

By Kamal Ali

An Azerbaijani drone (unmanned aerial vehicle) has flown over Armenia. This is according to a story published on the Kavkazskiy Uzel website by an Armenian blogger.

The story, headlined “Azerbaijani drone over Armenia”, said an Azerbaijani UAV was seen flying over the Armenian border village of Kokhb at 1530 local time on April 30.

There is an Armenian army unit based in the village. The drone flew over the military unit in the village for quite long, probably taking pictures of the unit, said the blogger, “Yerevanets”. 

Armenians opened fire on the drone but failed to down it. The UAV continued flying over the village for some time before escaping, the blogger said.   

There has been no official confirmation of the report. Yet, residents of the village confirmed it in an interview with nyut.am website.

“This is a very alarming situation,” the blogger wrote. “First, our (troops) allowed (Azerbaijani drone) to violate the border. Second, they failed to shoot it down. An expert at the Ministry of Defense said the drone was out of reach of “Shilka” (high-caliber machine-gun).”

“I think our Ministry of Defense needs to think about the incident very seriously,” the blogger added.

According to Interfax-Azerbaijan news agency, Azerbaijan last year received authorization to fly reconnaissance drones of its own production.

The Orbiter 2M small army drones, used for reconnaissance purposes, are capable of flying at very high altitudes. It can monitor the smallest details on the ground.

Orbiter 2M weighs 8 kilograms. At full load, including on-board video cameras, it weighs more than ten pounds.

The Israeli Orbiter 2M UAVs are being manufactured by Baku's Azad Systems Co., a joint venture between Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry and Aeronautics Defense Systems of Israel.

Around 70 percent of the components are produced in Israel, the rest in Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan's military already operates Elbit Systems' Hermes 450 and IAI's Searcher reconnaissance drones, as well as some of Aeronautics Defense Systems' Aerostar and Orbiter craft.

Bakudaily.az