Azerbaijan Used Spike NLOS in Tavush Battles

On July 21, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia organized an exhibition showcasing the Azerbaijani drones downed by the Armenian Armed Forces. The display featured remnants of drones shot down in recent days, as well as several examples of previously downed Azerbaijani UAVs.

Among the UAVs, the exhibition also included debris from recent battles, corresponding to the Israeli-made Spike NLOS guided missiles. This was reported by Razm.info.

NLOS is the longest-range variant of Spike guided missiles, capable of hitting targets up to approximately 25 km away. In addition to NLOS, the Azerbaijani arsenal also includes other types of Spike missiles, such as Spike LR with a range of 5 km and Spike ER with a range of 8 km. However, the missiles differ in appearance from the NLOS, and we did not observe any remnants of these among the displayed debris.

A particular point of interest is the platform from which these missiles were launched. In principle, they can be mounted on both ground and aerial platforms, and Azerbaijan had previously installed them on warships. In a 2018 interview, Azerbaijan’s Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov mentioned that they learned lessons from losing their helicopter in the April 2016 battles, and have since worked on minimizing the need for helicopters to enter areas accessible to enemy air defense systems. In this context, Hasanov referred to Spike NLOS.

Recently, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense also released a photograph showing a Mi-17 helicopter apparently equipped with suspension points for Spike NLOS. However, Azerbaijan has never demonstrated these missiles installed on ground platforms. This does not mean that ground-based variants do not exist in Azerbaijan’s arsenal, but it is highly likely that in the July 2020 battles, Azerbaijan used Spike NLOS missiles from helicopters for the first time.

Left: displayed debris, right: Spike NLOS missile
Azerbaijani PSN warship with Spike NLOS launch system
Azerbaijani Mi-17 helicopter supposedly with Spike NLOS suspensions