Drones should be considered as a part of a countries airforce, rather than a separate asset altogether
it wasn't so much Azerbaijan vs Armenia as it was Azerbaijan vs Artsakh (Nagorno_Karabakh)
Most of the Armenian military stayed in their barracks. That's the truth. Artsakh has never been recognized as part of Armenia by Armenia itself.
It's like what eastern Ukraine is to Russia, except Armenia has a population of 3 million and not nearly as much resources at its disposal.
In any case, if you take Azerbaijans airforce into consideration, then you have to consider those Israeli drones, loitering munitions, helicopters, etc along with the priceless help that Azerbaijan received from Turkish drones, not to mention the satellite intelligence Turkey provided as well.
So if you consider all that then Azerbaijan definitely had the edge over the Armenians of Artsakh (Nagorno_Karabakh) when it came to air power.
Even if you compare Azerbaijans airforce to Armenia directly then you have to take the Israeli and Turkish drones and assets into consideration. In that case, even compared to Armenia proper, you could argue that Azerbaijan has a better airforce.
If you just want to consider conventional fighter jets then it's a different story, but that's my point. UAVs should be considered as being a part of an airforce, rather than a separate entity.
Realistically though, in the big picture Azerbaijan and Armenia, Both nations have minuscule and relatively insignificant airforces and Azerbaijan did not significantly deploy their fighter jets simply because of the risk involved.
The Armenians had decent air defenses. Decent enough to shoot down atleast 100+ Azeri drones, helicopters, loitering munitions and other aircraft. Armenians claim they shot down 200, but let's say we give them the Azeri side the benefit of the doubt.
Anyways, If the Azeris would have deployed their jets, then Armenians would have probably done the same, perhaps deploying their jets and most likely deploying the S-300 against Azeri jets. Azeris claim to have destroyed an S-300 SAM but they never showed any solid evidence.
In any case, for a small country like Azerbaijan or Armenia to lose a fighter jet is a huge loss, humiliating and a massive morale boost for the other side. Look at how Syrians celebrated on the streets when that one Israeli F-16 was shot down a few years ago.
Look at what happened a few years ago when Turkey shot down that Russian jet near the Syrian border. If that had been a Russian drone, it wouldn't have mattered nearly as much as it did.
When Iran shot down the RQ-4, Trump decided not to retaliate. If it had been a fighter jet with an American pilot or a plane with several officers, then Trump would have had no choice but to retaliate.
Anyways drones are definitely integral to any modern day conflict. Mainly because they're cheaper and if they're shot down there is no life lost, no pilot that you had to train for years, no tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars lost.
Yet at the same time, in a total war scenario, countries WILL deploy fighter jets and fighter jets have a significant advantage over drones.
Most drones cannot launch BVR missiles and even if they can, jets can do the same but in a BVR contest, jets can deploy counter measures like flares and are highly maneuverable. Drones don't have those options.
Perhaps in the future drones will become more maneuverable and they will be able to deploy flares and other counter measures to avoid BVR missiles, BUT, the thing about a drone is that it can be jammed, hacked, as we saw with the RQ-170.
A drone can be hacked and then used by the enemy to destroy their own targets. However a fighter pilot is never going to follow orders to hit his own base or kill his own forces. That's the thing, having both, a hybrid airforce, is the best option.
Lets not forget the AZ-AR was again. The country with far inferior Airforce won the war. AZ won with UCAV.
Myth busted again:
“No country has won a war without superior airforce” Another wrong example.
Air Force is not air power. UCAV will give you air power.
We absolutely need a better Air Force and we will gradually advance when our turbofan matures.
Yet, we already have a good air power.
