Drones Shape a 44-Day War over Nagorno-Karabakh

On the morning of 27 September 2020, Azerbaijani forces launched a broad offensive along the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh, reigniting an unresolved conflict rooted in the breakup of the Soviet Union. Decades earlier, the regional parliament's 1988 request to transfer the autonomous oblast from Soviet Azerbaijan to Soviet Armenia had unleashed ethnic clashes and a full-scale war that concluded in 1994. Under the resulting ceasefire, Armenian forces and the self-declared Republic of Artsakh held most of the mountainous enclave along with all or most of seven surrounding Azerbaijani districts. Despite international mediation through the OSCE Minsk Group, more than a quarter century of diplomatic stalemate left both nations on a path toward renewed hostility.

Azerbaijan approached the 2020 campaign with significant technological and material advantages, financed by years of petroleum exports. Baku had acquired sophisticated equipment from Israel, Russia, and Turkey, including advanced sensors, long-range artillery, and a comprehensive fleet of combat drones. Armenian forces relied primarily on Soviet-era hardware, dug-in fortifications, and tactical ballistic missiles, with self-produced drones that lacked the endurance and precision of their adversary's systems.