Morocco Bolsters Military with Israeli and Turkish Weapons, Echoing Azerbaijan’s Strategy

Harop, Barak 8 missile, armed Bayraktar TB2 drones... Morocco is working to acquire all the Israeli and Turkish defense systems except the quasi-ballistic Israeli LORA missiles, which allowed Azerbaijan to win the second Nagorno-Karabakh war - populated mainly by Armenians and which seceded from Azerbaijan with Armenian support - against the Armenian forces, which took place from September to November 2020, according to Forbes. In the deadly fighting in the Caucasus region, the Russian weapons used by Armenia did not withstand the fury of the Israeli and Turkish weapons possessed by the Azerbaijani forces. In addition to these weapons, Morocco would recently have received the advanced Barak MX air defense system, which it ordered from Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) as part of a $500 million agreement concluded in 2022.

Well before the normalization of relations between Rabat and Tel Aviv, the kingdom had acquired Israeli drone technology for the first time in 2014. At the time, it had received three Heron drones as part of an agreement negotiated by France. The rapprochement between the two countries has accelerated the rearmament of the Royal Armed Forces (FAR). Morocco’s recent drone acquisitions have quickly made "an already unequal war between Morocco and the Polisario completely asymmetric," according to a research report, noting that these technologies significantly strengthen Rabat’s surveillance and strike capabilities to target the part of Western Sahara controlled by the movement.

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In the event of a possible conflict between Morocco and Algeria, Rabat could draw inspiration from Azerbaijan by using the same advanced systems defensively and offensively: Harops targeting Algerian air defenses, TB2s, and perhaps Akincis, striking Algerian ground forces near the border, and Barak systems intercepting Algerian missiles.