The propaganda about Ankara’s drones, much of which cannot be verified at all, is amazing because as far as I know, no other armed drone programs or loitering munitions out out all these supposed videos and lists of supposed success. The only way to measure is that way
For instance, ok I’m interested in any confirmed successes Ankara’s drones had, whether it is supposedly striking hundreds of armed vehicles in Syria or Armenian vehicles…but how can any of it be confirmed. It’s usually just reports of Blitzkrieg like success at face value
Other drones, like loitering munitions also used against Armenian forces are relegated to non-existent because no one bothers to quantify their use or success…it’s like a footnote (“and there were other drones”)…
Similarly while a lot is known about US drone strikes, mostly critical reports on civilians being hit, I’d like to see the other side of the reports of supposed success. There were clearly a lot of strikes using them; let’s compare.
It seems to me only then can one seriously discuss how successful the Ankara drones are; clearly Ankara wants to sell them. But that’s a good reason to be suspicious. Because the US wasn’t doing drone ops to sell Reapers abroad; and other drone makers don’t generally brag
It’s a uniquely Ankara things to leak reports or openly put out reports bragging about their armed drones used on a half dozen battlefields. And oddly the industry of armed drone critics are silent so there is almost no controversy
No one tabulates for instance civilian casualties among the drone strikes by Ankara or those it sells to…but it can’t be reasonable to conclude that somehow the U.S. only makes mistakes when it comes to armed drone strikes
Ankara exists in this like alternate universe….free from any critical reporting and just spoon feeding propaganda to media about the amazing Blitzkrieg of drones…
It’s entirely possible the Ankara drone program performed decently against actors that mostly lack any air defense, kind of like how the Predator and Reapers were used…but it’s worth being skeptical of any report about these successes
Those arguing the Ankara drones somehow transform war….umm there were armed drones for two decades now used by other countries (mostly the US)…if you’re ignoring all the other drone manufacturers and loitering munitions from Israel, Iran, China, etc…it’s not really serious
Sure, there should be reports just at least look a bit deeper, be a bit skeptical and give some context. Don’t pretend like Ankara invented drone warfare…which tbh is just a marketing plan for the drones…and the market is big, growing and countries are running to get them
And yes I wrote a book on this called #DroneWars, so I have an interest in the topic of the drone arms race amazon.com/Drone-Wars-Pio…
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