Operation Spring Shield suddenly made the Turkish army a forced pioneer.
On Thursday, March 5, military expert Bahri Mert Demirel told the Turkish edition of Yeni Şafak, which is controlled by the ruling Justice and Development Party.
Demirel assessed how actively Turkish armed contingent uses drones in Syrian Idlib. According to him, Operation Spring Shield was the first in the history of military conflicts when drones became the “main striking force”. The expert argues that in this way Ankara is “putting forward a new military doctrine in the region and around the world.
In Turkey’s past military operations, drones did play a secondary role, while the main emphasis was on F-16 fighters, which are in service with the Turkish Air Force.
Demirel, however, is silent on one particular feature of the Turkish offensive in the province of Idlib. F-16s could also have been fully engaged here, but Ankara made a serious miscalculation. The Russian Defense Ministry made it clear that Turkish aviation is not guaranteed security in this region.
As you know, the sky above Idlib de-escalation zone is fully controlled by air defense systems, which are located at the Russian air base “Khmeimim”. That is why Turkey is forced to throw drones into battle, which often do not return. Moreover, as Demirel himself admitted, the functionality of Turkish drones is limited. In particular, they cannot withstand aviation.