Date: Issue 106 - May 2021
In recent months we have seen extensive news coverage of real combat footage of Turkish drones, namely TB2 and ANKA, in Syria, in Libya, and most recently in Karabagh, Azerbaijan. These real-time war images showed that tanks, armored vehicles, artillery pieces, ammunition depots, trucks, and even bunkers are all decimated with armed TB2 and ANKA drones. Of course, during these drone strikes, heavy casualties are inflicted on the soldiers or paramilitary forces on the ground. But one of the weapon systems that is not mentioned in the above casualty list was air defense systems which were supposed to protect the battlefield from drones like TB2 or ANKA. Why have they failed? What could be the reason(s) that some of these SA-22 Pantsir, SA-15 TOR, SA-8 Gecko, SA-17 Buk, or even Armenian SA-20 (S-300) fell victim to TB2 and ANKA strikes.