Various countries of the world actively update their park of drones, which over the past few years have changed the tactics of conducting hostilities. According to Forbes, the Morocco authorities reached an agreement with China to buy Chengdu Wing Loong II drones.
Thus, the Rabat will have in its military arsenal drones from three suppliers – Turkey, Israel and China.
The publication notes that earlier Morocco armed his army with Bayraktar TB2 drones and Harop Israeli devices and has the same capabilities that Azerbaijan’s armed forces have.
During the 44-day war in Karabakh, the Israeli drones of the Azerbaijani army disabled Armenian air defense systems, and Turkish Bayractars successfully destroyed tanks of Russian origin. Forbes writes that Morocco may try to repeat the same tactics in a potential war with Algeria, whose armed forces mainly use Russian weapons.
Ethiopia also shows great interest in the Iranian shock drones of Mohajer-6, which Russia actively uses in Ukraine. “Diversified purchases of this kind are likely to become the norm, and not an exception, especially since more and more manufacturers of unmanned aerial vehicles bring to the market more and more models at more competitive prices,” the article says.
Under the Trump administration, the USA tightened the control regime for missile technologies, which is why the supply of drones even to the closest US allies became impossible. This gap on the market seeks to fill in China, which offers all countries to its drones of Wing Loong II and CASC Rainbow.
In addition to the diversification of procurement of the country’s UAV, they also work on the development of their capabilities for the production of drones at the local level. It is reported that the Morocco deal for Chinese drones includes the production of a number of them in the kingdom. According to reports, Rabat is already negotiating the transaction on the joint production of Israeli ammunition on its territory.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is another Wing Loong II operator. Now Er-Riyad wants TB2 and the plant to produce them at the local level. The kingdom has already signed an agreement with China on the creation of drones at the local level. Saudis are developing their own samoom drone, which, as they expect, can join the armed forces of the kingdom by 2024.
The leader in the production of drones abroad is Turkey, which has already concluded relevant agreements with a number of countries. Iran also opened the first factory for the production of his drones – the choice fell on the neighboring Tajikistan.