Azerbaijan is testing Israeli drones close to Armenian positions

Armenia is closely watching the Israeli mass media’s recent reports on a live demonstration of the Israeli drones on the Armenian military positions. According to Tigran Balayan, a spokesperson for the Armenian Foreign Ministry, the agency has been following the developments.

The Israeli Haaretz media outlet has recently reported that the Israeli Defense Ministry launched a probe into the activity of the Aeronautics Defense System Company which supplies combat UAVs to Azerbaijan. About a month ago, company officials traveled to Azerbaijan to finalize a contract for the sale of the Orbiter 1K unmanned aircraft, and the client allegedly requested them to deploy aircraft, armed with explosives, on a military position of the Armenian army, as a live demonstration before accepting the order.

Aeronautics Defense Systems claims that a drone demo was carried out by a purchaser.

“Aeronautics markets its products to customers in about 50 different countries, and only in accordance with approval from the Defense Export Controls Agency. The operational action was carried out by the purchaser alone and is their responsibility. Aeronautics has never carried out demonstrations on live targets, and that was true in this case as well,” the company was cited as saying.

Israeli mass media also reported some details of the incident: the company specialists refused to launch drones, even after threats directed against them, as it could have led to casualties. However, two senior representatives of the company armed and operated the unmanned aircraft themselves. Ultimately, the drones are said to have missed their targets, and no damage was caused, but one of them reportedly struck at a distance of about 100 meters from the Armenian position.

According to the Israeli media reports, one of the aforesaid officials has already resigned, and another one is also going to quit his job in the company.

The Israeli Defense Ministry refused to comment on any issues related to military exports. Therefore, no clarifications have been made with regard to this incident either.