On Sept. 15, a new discovery linked an unmanned Azeri drone downed this week by the Nagorno Karabagh Republic (NKR) Defense Army to a U.S. Defense company that manufactures signal distribution products, raising questions about potential violations of U.S. arms export laws.
The NKR Army had downed an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)—a drone—early on Mon., Sept. 13, saying it had violated Karabagh airspace and that Azeri Air Force activity had “visibly increased” recently along the Karabagh-Azerbaijan border.
A close review of a video of the drone wreckage released by the NKR Army revealed that Colorado-based GPS Source Inc., which manufactures and sells signal distribution products, was the maker of a GPS splitter that made up the downed drone. The GPS splitter allows a single GPS antenna to be shared between multiple GPS receivers.
An earlier examination of the video revealed that the Canadian-based company NovAtel, which has offices in Texas, was the manufacturer of the GPS antenna used on the drone.
The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has called on the State Department to look into whether the use of the NovAtel-manufactured components warrants an investigation into potential violations of U.S. arms export laws.
“…We are especially troubled by the prospect that Azerbaijan’s military escalation, threats of violence, and actual aggression may be, directly or indirectly, fueled by U.S. defense articles, in violation of U.S. law, and in a manner contrary to the American people’s commitment to a peaceful settlement of conflicts in the Caucasus and around the world,” ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian told Hillary Clinton in a letter dated Sept. 14.
Azerbaijani media outlets meanwhile released a brief statement by the Defense Ministry denying any role in the drone flights: “Azerbaijan has nothing to do with an unmanned aerial vehicle that crashed in Armenian-occupied Nagorno-Karabagh.”
NKR President Bako Sahakian on Sept. 15 told RFE/RL, through a spokesperson, that the UAV reconnaissance flight constituted a serious violation of the cease-fire agreement.
“First of all, the [Azerbaijani] aggressor will now feel more restrained because the destruction of such military hardware also shows the extent of the technical sophistication of our army. That will certainly have a quite sobering impact on Baku’s behavior,” Sahakian’s press secretary, Davit Babayan, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
Babayan said the downed drone was proof of continued violations by Azerbaijan, and called on Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitors to expand the scope of their ceasefire monitoring missions.
RFE/RL suggested the drones were a product of a joint Azeri-Israeli venture (a plant, opened in Baku in March, assembles Israeli-designed drones for the Azeri armed forces) and added that the Azeri military has reportedly purchased such aircraft from Israel and Turkey.
According to Colonel Nikolay Babayan, the commander of Armenia’s air-defense forces, NKR Army units used special “radioelectronic” equipment to shoot down the spy plane. “It is very difficult to hit and even locate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) because they are made of special composite materials,” Babayan told Panorama.am on Sept. 14. “But we managed to do that by using special devices.”
The official did not specify the type of anti-aircraft weapon that was reportedly used to down the UAV. He said only that Azeri drones regularly carry out reconnaissance flights near Karabagh.
“This time, the UAV violated the border, as a result of which its flight was ended by the joint work of our air-defense troops and radioelectronic forces,” Babayan said.
“Azerbaijan has nothing to do with an unmanned aerial vehicle that crashed in Armenian-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Hahaha, riiiiiight
Luke Skywalker: “these are not the droids you are looking for”
Yes tem em Babayanin haydararoutyan, vor eentchbeesee desag meetchotsov harvadzadz e ayt otanave. Bedk e kaghdnabahoutyoune khessdatsenel.
I have to admit to knock a “stealth” made drone over 5000 feet above by air defense forces of Artsakh is a huge military superiority over turkish and azerBYjanis air arsenal, and a big blow to their morale… These 2 Turkic nations already spend millions of dollars investments toward drone technology, especially turkish military, where they use Israeli made drones regularly against PKK forces in Iraq!!
Grish,
Your post seems to allude that you feel Armenia and/or the illegal Armenian forces in NK can take on Turkey! Is that correct? If so, that’s a pretty grandiose and arrogant statement, wouldn’t you say! If you do indeed feel this way, then what’s stopping you from coming into Turkey and “teaching us a lesson”? I doubt very much that the Russian military and their equipment will follow you into battle. So how do you plan on doing anything to us, let alone Azerbaijan (please note the proper spelling. Your pathetic feeble attempt at humor is not appreciated. Would you like someone to do that when writing the word Armenia?)?
Robert you asked the following of Grish
If so, that’s a pretty grandiose and arrogant statement, wouldn’t you say! If you do indeed feel this way, then what’s stopping you from coming into Turkey and “teaching us a lesson
You are confusing us with barbaric savages are not you?? You DO KNOW that Armenians are not killers or murderors or we did not belong or came from savage civilization.. you DO KNOW that Armenians were brutally murdered by your barbaric ancestors almost 100 years ago and we did not even have a chance to defend ourselves because my people were stripped of everything possible to fight back.. THANK GOD to those men and women called Fedayis that stood against the tide of savages and fought back to protect the pocket of people who were still alive.. MAY GOD REST THEIR SOULS…. and now that we have and will continue to defend our country, you are mocking us??? Do you think because your ancestors use savagry and heartless acts by murdering innocent people, Armenians will do the same?? You are sooooooo wrong…..soooo off the wagon…..guess that shows how little you know of Armenians.. but then again why am I surprised.. you know very little or nothing about Armenians or Armenian history …. Armenians will fight against those who are in the battlefiend like we did to get rid of them rats from our lands back in early 2000.. you remember the bloodshed that Azeris combined with Turks created during the Artsakh’s war right?? but guess what???? even with all the modern artilaries, magnitutude of Azeri and turkish soldiers Azeris end up losing the war… .. repeat Azeris LOST the war…so i guess with the little that Armenia has, their spirits and hearts were bigger and stronger than them losers who tried to scare our soldiers by their numbers….
by the way if you did not know…there is NO SUCH WORD as Azerbajian.. that is a made up word and a made up country.. i am sure you knew about that.. so instead of trying to sound smart, please refraim from addressing my friend Grish in such tone…you are no allowed…regardless if you are allowed to post freely on our pages…..
Thank you and have a nice day…
Gayane
Gayane jan, thanks for answering our turkish boy Robert, I don’t have to add more…all I can add that fake place such as republic of azerBYjan is differnet from real Azerbaijan of Iran.. a stolen land… stolen name.. stolen culture…stolen music..and finally Turkified people..most Persian speaking people know very well, that their half of beloved Azerbaijan, is taken by foreign forces first by Mongol Turks, then by Seljuk Turks, where entire land of Aran was Turkified, and finally by “Stalin The Devil”, where Soviet troops occupied complete land of Azerbaijan including Iran’s Azerbaijan during 2-nd world war…Stalin gave only half of the stolen land back to Iran after US and and British complaint, Soviets kept Baku oil for themselves, and they became an independent republic, after the fall of USSR just by luck, now it is part of horsey alioff wonderland.. flying kite over the land of Artsakh become a daily habit, for alioff and his faithful soldiers!!