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As transparency increases on the contemporary battlefield, most scholars attribute military outcomes to technological superiority, yet this study assesses whether tactical adaptation remains the decisive factor for success. Applying Stephen Biddle’s Modern System of Force Employment (MSFE), the study conducts a structured, focused comparison of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war and the 2022 Russian offensive toward Kyiv.

The analysis operationalizes key components of force employment and assesses how these were shaped by persistent surveillance, precision fires and unmanned systems. Drawing on open-source military reporting and operational analyses, the findings indicate that Azerbaijani success and Russian failure are better explained by differences in tactical adaptation and organizational employment of forces than by technological capabilities or numerical superiority.

 The study contributes to the ”transparent battlefield” debate by demonstrating that modern outcomes are primarily driven by how forces adapt MSFE components under conditions of pervasive surveillance and precision strike.