Drones Have Raised the Odds and Risks of Small Wars
The success of unmanned aerial vehicles in recent conflicts will tempt more countries to go on the offensive.
A game-changer in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh
Photographer: Birol Bebek/AFP via Getty Images
A major hero of two recent conflicts — in Libya and in Nagorno-Karabakh — isn’t even human. It’s an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or drone, called the Bayraktar TB2 and made by Baykar, a Turkish company in which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s son-in-law, Selcuk Bayraktar, serves as the chief technical officer.
In Libya last year, the TB2 scored some successes against a vaunted Russian anti-aircraft system, Pantsir, helping the United Nations-recognized government of Fayez al-Sarraj hold Tripoli against the onslaught of General Khalifa Haftar, who had armed himself with the Pantsirs.