The Orbiter 1k drone is capable of carrying a special 2.2 to 4.4 pound special explosive payload.
JERUSALEM, YEREVAN—The Israeli Defense Ministry said it is investigating allegations that Azerbaijan asked an Israeli defense firm to carry out live demonstrations of a suicide drone system, which it sold to Azerbaijan, on Artsakh targets.
The Israeli daily Maariv on Sunday reported that Aeronautics Defense System, which manufactures the drone, sent a team to Azerbaijan to finalize a sale of its Orbiter 1K unarmed aircraft. The Israeli team was asked by the Azerbaijani army to test the drones, armed with explosives, on a military position in Artsakh.
Maariv, which reported about the complaint, added that Aeronautics Defense System strongly denied that its staff carried out the alleged test saying the company “never carries out demonstrations [of the operations of the drone] on live targets, and that was true in this case as well.”
The existence of the complaint was reported Sunday by the Israeli daily paper Maariv. For its part however, Aeronautics Defense Systems strongly denied that its staff carried out such a mission, saying that it was carried out by the purchaser of the aircraft.
According to Maariv, however, the two Israeli drone operators refused to hit the Artsakh target, and after firmly refusing and being threatened by Azerbaijanis, senior representatives of the company armed and operated the drone, which is said to have missed its target without causing damage.
The complaint, however, states that one of them hit about 330 feet from the intended target.
The complaint against the company was filed with the ministry’s Defense Export Controls Agency, which oversees the activities of the country’s defense contractors. The defense ministry said, “As a rule,â€
