Armenian attempt to hijack Turkish TB2 drone ends with Russian system destroyed: report

An attempt to hijack a Turkish-made drone flying over Karabakh ended with the destruction of a Russian ground surveillance system that belonged to Armenia, according to reports.

Several reports circulating in Russian media claimed that an unidentified military unit tried to seize control of the globally lauded Bayraktar TB2 combat UAV operated by the Azerbaijani army with the help of Russia's 1L222M Avtobaza-M system. 

However, the killer drone destroyed the Russian-made surveillance system after it picked up on the interference and foiled the attempted hijacking.

Over the course of the 44-day Karabakh war, several electronic warfare systems were also destroyed by Turkish-made drones.

Russia had previously claimed that the Avtobaza-M radio surveillance system boasts a 100 percent success rate in hijacking, destroying or successfully landing enemy UAVs in a designated area.

Relations between the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Upper Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

During a subsequent 44-day conflict which ended under a deal signed Nov. 10, 2020, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and nearly 300 settlements and villages from Armenian nearly three-decade occupation.

The cease-fire is seen as a victory for Azerbaijan and a defeat for Armenia, whose armed forces withdrew in line with the agreement.

Turkey’s combat drones had reportedly destroyed the Russian-made Pantsir missile systems in Syria, Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh, as Ankara’s deployment of UAVs was credited for the victories clinched by Turkey’s allies from Asia to Africa.

The Bayraktar TB2 armed UAV, which was developed and manufactured by Turkish defense company Baykar Technologies, has been used by the Turkish Armed Forces and the country’s Security Directorate since 2015, most recently credited for Azerbaijan’s military success in the Karabakh conflict.