LEGZ30
LE

The dramatic success of drones in this conflict has made me more or less forget the question of air superiority. Do the Armenians in NK have an airforce? Have they ever tried to attain air superiority or if not superiority, at least balance?
I suddenly realised I haven't seen a single photo or video of helicopters of either side and what are their air forces up to, if anything? (Never mind the AN2's used as UAV AD bait)
What I'm getting at is, if over 30 years the Armenians in NK have never even tried to achieve at least a balance of air power with the Azeris, their defeat in any real conflict in NK has pretty much been a foregone conclusion?
In the days when it was still a fairly poor country economically (before there was US support), it took Israel just 19 years, from independence in 1948, until six days in 1967, to build an air force from scratch which then destroyed the entire Egyptian air force and foiled the attacking air forces of Syria, Jordan and Iraq. The Armenians have had thirty years - have they just not bothered?
As far as I know the Armenian Air Force is small and largely made up of second hand Russian kit. I have no idea if the NKR have any aircraft of their own.
There have definitely been aircraft operating because both sides have claimed to have shot down fixed wing, helis and drones and I have seen some pictures of crash sites so it isn't all exaggerated claims.
Edited to add - My personal opinion based on the conversations I have had with Armenians over the years was that they knew they were never going to win an arms race with the Azeris. The Azerbaijan Defence Budget is bigger than Armenia's GDP. They have always relied on the defence pact with Russia to keep the Azeris out of Armenia proper and for NK on inflicting so many casualties during a break through of the mountain lines that the Azeris will quit.