Ukrainian Bayraktar TB2 drone hit by Russian Buk M2 anti-aircraft missile: Image: Armen Press
At the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Turkish combat drones helped Kiev. The gun has since gone silent. A Ukrainian defense expert explains why.
One of the miracle weapons of the war in Ukraine was kept silent – the Turkish combat drone Bayraktar TB2 has disappeared from the skies of Ukraine.
While the unmanned and weaponized missile was still successful early in the war in Ukraine, the Bayraktar’s absence in combat indicates a military failure in the ongoing fight against the Russian invaders.
Especially in the battles for Kiev, the drone was famous for the Destroyed a large number of Russian armored vehicles reached up. Images of exploding Russian vehicles quickly spread across social media – a first Ukraine victory in information warfare and a not inconsiderable factor in strengthening Ukraine’s will to resist the seemingly overbearing Russian military.
However, it is not clear whether these were always shots from the Bayraktar or shots from the so-called end-of-phase guided munitions. This term refers to artillery shells that can affect their trajectory after leaving the gun barrel.
Bayraktar was undoubtedly effective in the Nagorno-Karabakh War, which then Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CD U) called the “first real drone war”.
In 2020, Azerbaijani “Bayraktar” and Israeli kamikaze drones could make a significant contribution to Armenia against Azerbaijan with an unfavorable truce had to admit defeat.
With the air defenses still Soviet-era and unupgraded, Armenian tanks, artillery, command points and troop concentrations were defenseless against Azerbaijani attacks from Bayraktar. Here too the drone provided important propaganda footage in information warfare.
