Quote:
Originally Posted by BloodFetish
The brief Nagorno-Karabakh war between Azerbaijan and Armenia was less than two years before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Azeri Bayraktars wrecked the Armenian air defense and gained them air superiority over the battlefield. This was the first time I recall drones playing a significant part in determining the outcome of a war, and I'm sure other countries in the region payed very close attention.
|
Yup. Russo-Ukrainian war has been the large scale breakthrough of drones, but it wasn't where it all started.
Houthis in Yemen have been one very notable group making their own drones and using them attacks since 2016.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/14/w...ne-attack.html
These 2019 attacks on Saudi Arabian oil fields were I think the most high profile case, and possibly the first internationally high profile case of drones showing their potential. What was so notable here was that Saudi Arabia had a Patriot battery protecting those oil fields, but that was to some extent unable to target the low flying drones, and the rest of the air defense was just overwhelmed by the number of cheap drones.
The fact that Houthis scored such a clear W with relatively cheap drones against a high quality air defense had quite a lot of people taking notice and realizing the "disruptive" potential of this technology.
EDIT:
...and really, the extent to which it has been disruptive is kind of incredible.
Houthis have managed to successfully disrupt the Red Sea trade route with the help of air and sea drones (combined with more traditional missiles) for over a year now, despite an international attempt to secure the route with billions of dollars of air and naval power.
The disparity of the forces at play there is just ridiculous.