BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30
Trend:
The footage [of military clashes with Armenia] that we show online, is almost nothing compared to what's happening [in reality], President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said in interview to Russian Interfax agency, Trend reports.
“The arsenal of the Azerbaijani army consists not only of drones. We have modern air defense systems made in Russia, in Israel, in Belarus; several air defense systems are crisscross, which shoot down the bulk of missiles being sent from Armenian territory. Unfortunately, we can't shoot down all of them,” the head of state said.
“Our armor is the most modern: upgraded T-72 tanks, the most modern T-90 tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, modern artillery that has very long range. This includes 'Polonez' Multiple Launch Rocket System, LORA, Extra, Kasirga, etc. Our approach to the arming of our army was not one-sided,” the Azerbaijani president said.
“But modern methods of warfare, of course, are different from those we had back in 1990s, and so unmanned aviation is an important factor of our combat capabilities, especially considering fortified areas,” the head of state said.
Speaking of Armenian troops digging tunnels, President Aliyev said they "have many kilometers of interconnected tunnels, rat tunnels where they get to as soon as they hear noise. There is a rat tunnel near every gun. That is why it would have been very hard to destroy this without modern hardware, this would result in a large number of casualties. We destroyed many Grad systems, and in this case unmanned aviation, Turkish and Israeli drones, helped us very much,” Azerbaijani president said.
“By using UAVs, we destroyed at least six S-300 air defense systems. In addition, modern UAVs conduct reconnaissance themselves, apart from independently carrying out strikes. They also coordinate artillery, which strikes afterwards. This is why it is an important factor of our success. But as I said, Azerbaijani soldiers and officers are liberating their own lands. Because this is our heritage, and it is not by accident that the Azerbaijani army is considered as one of the most effective. I already know that this experience has been studied,” the head of state said.
“I recently held a meeting with the military and said that we should analyze both successes and shortcomings. And in the future, when we buy military hardware, we should be guided by experience in terms of what we need and what lies in storage depots,” the head of state said.