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EurasiaNet.org, NY
March 4 2011
Azerbaijan's Spying Carpets
March 4, 2011 - 10:21am, by Giorgi Lomsadze
Azerbaijan on March 4 kick-started the manufacture of unmanned
aircraft, most probably to peek into the goings-on in Armenia and
Armenian-guarded, breakaway Nagorno Karabakh.
Defense officials yesterday updated Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
on their progress with the domestic production of Israeli-designed
drones. The two models, Orbiter 2M and Aerostar, both manufactured by
a local company, AZAD Systems Co., can cruise for five and 12 hours at
altitudes of six and 10 kilometers, respectively.
Armenia, which occasionally exchanges gunfire with Azerbaijan, in the
past has complained about Baku reportedly flying drones over disputed
Karabakh.
Drones have become a popular defense toy elsewhere in the South
Caucasus, too. Some two months before the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, a
Russian jet shot down an unmanned Georgian reconnaissance aircraft
that was hovering over breakaway Abkhazia. Since the war, Moscow has
offered to sell Abkhazia Russian-made drones.
The Azerbaijani models, financed by a $3.12-billion defense budget,
may not have attack capabilities, but their presence similarly
promises to add tensions to an atmosphere already charged with war
rhetoric.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/63004
From: A. Papazian
March 4 2011
Azerbaijan's Spying Carpets
March 4, 2011 - 10:21am, by Giorgi Lomsadze
Azerbaijan on March 4 kick-started the manufacture of unmanned
aircraft, most probably to peek into the goings-on in Armenia and
Armenian-guarded, breakaway Nagorno Karabakh.
Defense officials yesterday updated Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
on their progress with the domestic production of Israeli-designed
drones. The two models, Orbiter 2M and Aerostar, both manufactured by
a local company, AZAD Systems Co., can cruise for five and 12 hours at
altitudes of six and 10 kilometers, respectively.
Armenia, which occasionally exchanges gunfire with Azerbaijan, in the
past has complained about Baku reportedly flying drones over disputed
Karabakh.
Drones have become a popular defense toy elsewhere in the South
Caucasus, too. Some two months before the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, a
Russian jet shot down an unmanned Georgian reconnaissance aircraft
that was hovering over breakaway Abkhazia. Since the war, Moscow has
offered to sell Abkhazia Russian-made drones.
The Azerbaijani models, financed by a $3.12-billion defense budget,
may not have attack capabilities, but their presence similarly
promises to add tensions to an atmosphere already charged with war
rhetoric.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/63004
From: A. Papazian