Armenia after a severe defeat in the Second Karabakh war seeks to supply new weapons to replace the lost, as well as replenish the arsenals by procurement of Western weapons and modernization.
The correspondent of Anadolu summarized the initiatives of Armenia in the field of defense aimed at updating the arsenals. In particular, we are talking about the recent purchases of Armenia of new weapons among India and France, as well as cooperation in the field of defense with countries such as the USA, Greece, the Greek administration of Southern Cyprus, South Korea and China. Although the military budget of Armenia in 2024 increased by more than 80 percent compared to 2020, this country needed to decide on priorities in order to compensate for the losses of weapons and equipment in the Second Karabakh war, as well as adapting it for the tactics of conducting a modern war. And in this regard, Armenia began to look for partners who can update its arsenals, supply ammunition and provide logistics support in a timely manner.
Armenian government officials, including Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, have repeatedly stated that Yerevan no longer intends to remain depending on Russia, which cannot provide sufficient support in the field of defense, but is trying to diversify defense cooperation. In particular, in his statement of September 18, Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan said that the military-technical cooperation of Armenia with Russia, which previously reached 96 percent, has decreased to 10 percent. Within the framework of her defense initiatives, Armenia first turned to India, which produces a relatively cheap and economically effective weapon.
India became the main supplier of weapons for Armenia, since it was in this country that Yerevan has recently purchased the most weapons. So, on May 15, a plan of cooperation for 2024-2025 was signed between the Ministry of Defense of Armenia and India. Thus, for this period, Armenia became the largest buyer of Indian weapons with a total procurement of $ 600 million. Armenia also considers the possibility of modernizing four Su-30 fighters using HindustanaeronauticsLimited (HAL). The modernization, which Armenia is counting on, includes the update of Avionics, electronic warfare complexes and the integration of the Air-Earth and Air and Air Air-Air missiles. Su-30, the production of which began in 1992 and which continues to be produced by Russia and India, are able to carry air-to-top air-to-surface missiles and aircraft bombs with a total mass of 8 tons.