Russian T-90M “Breakthrough-3” (Proryv-3) combat vehicles fire artillery at the Alabino training ground near Moscow, Aug. 23, 2020.
Russian troops massed in eastern Ukraine and annexed Crimea
Since 1991, the Ukrainian Air Force has not bought new fighter planes, accompanied by 125 Cold War vintage fighters, attack planes and combat helicopters, and with only $300 million (8.5 billion Taiwan dollars) in annual military spending, they simply cannot afford to replace the old with the new.
However, according to “Forbes” (Forbes) magazine network reported on the 9th, independent aviation experts Cooper (Tom Cooper), in fact, the Ukrainian Air Force is not necessary to replace these old warplanes. He said a large number of Russian warplanes and surface-to-air missiles are close at hand, and Ukrainian warplanes may become targets when they are still taking off.
Cooper pointed out that, according to Kiev, the purchase of new warplanes is neither economical nor justified. Instead, the Ukrainian Air Force should switch to drones and suicide drones. In the event of a large-scale war, Ukraine would be able to send out drones that would swarm Russian air defenses and destroy tanks and other combat vehicles.
The analysis says the brief but bloody war between Armenia and Azerbaijan last fall provided a possible preview of Ukrainian drone tactics. The two sides were fighting over the long-disputed “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic” (NKR), which many countries recognize as belonging to Azerbaijan, although it is mostly Armenian.
Armenian-Azerbaijani military conflict
Later, Azerbaijan deployed Turkish and Israeli-made drones with suicide drones to hit Armenian forces hard. They used Turkish-made medium-altitude, long-range Bayraktar-TB2 drones to launch small missiles, in addition to Israeli-made Harop and Orbit drones. “Orbiter 1K suicide drones, destroying Armenian tanks, combat vehicles, artillery and air defense systems.
The Azeri forces took advantage of the November ceasefire to increase their forces and take over most of the “Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh”. Analysis suggests that Ukraine could adopt the Azeri organization and tactics. And of course, the outstanding question is how much drone warfare Ukraine has to give and how effectively Moscow can counter it.
The TB2 is a mini version of Turkey’s Predator attack drone, weighing 1,400 pounds (about 635 kg) and costing about $1 million (about 28.46 million Taiwan dollars), and is the mainstay of Azerbaijan’s drone strike force. And since 2019, Ukraine has procured several TB2s from Turkish drone manufacturer Baykar. later Kiev and Ankara even contracted to build a Ukrainian version of the TB2.
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