During the I Karabakh War both sides were claiming a lots of ‘MiG-25s’ as shot down – almost all by MANPADS.
Are there any military history books about the I Karabakh War of 1992-1994? Perhaps some books about Armenian and Azerbaijani air forces?
Back then, there was no internet (at least not by modern-day measures), and it was extremely hard to get any kind of serious information. Later on… well, many things came in between, and I never found the time to ‘pursue’ related stories.
But, one I do recall caught lots of attention was about Azeri pilot Vaqif Gurbanov: he should’ve served with the former Soviet Air Force and then should have flown a Su-25 to Azerbaijan, in May 1992. Subsequently, several Russians and few other Azeris have joined him – flying MiG-21s, MiG-25s, and 2-3 Su-24 to Azerbaijan. An even larger number of crews operating Mi-24s followed, enabling Baku to found an air force. I also recall a story about three Su-17s acquired from Ukraine, together with a group of mercenary pilots… Gurbanov should’ve been shot down and killed in combat sometimes in June of the same year, though.
Around the same time, also an Armenian pilot hijacked a MiG-25PDS of the Soviet/Russian Air Force and defected to Armenia, but, generally, I do not recall any significant reporting about their operations – even though Yerevan should’ve acquired a sizeable number of Mi-2s, Mi-8s and Mi-24. On the contrary, Azeri MiG-25-pilots should’ve used even R-60 (AA-8 Aphid) air-to-air missiles to target Armenian tanks…
Another thing I do recall during that war was that both sides were claiming lots of ‘MiG-25s’ as shot down – almost all by MANPADS. Actually, most of jets should’ve been either L-39s or Su-25s (the latter two are relatively ‘similar’ as seen from the ground).
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