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RA President Serzh Sargsyan at a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on May 25 at NATO Headquarters made very important statements about Armenian armed forces and their fighting efficiency.

We will quote Serzh Sargsyan word for word: “The Armenian army is of victorious sample. It is an efficient, strong, well-organized structure and is ready for implementation of the tasks set before it. Today Armenian army’s armaments include such kinds of arms states 10-20 times bigger than Armenia wish they had. The professional abilities of our army’s officers and soldiers are spoken about by our partners both in the West and East, when we solve fighting problems together or take part in military exercises. Our army is a structure having born and baptized in the battlefield and our army’s higher officers led by the minister and head of General Headquarters have a serious experience of military operations, at that, a positive one. Besides, our army is under democratic control, it is an army that works transparently. It is an army that collaborates with NATO, an army that collaborates with CSTO member-states armed forces. It is an army ready for implementing the tasks set before it. We are proud of our army, yet, on the other hand, we dream of the day when there are no well-equipped and big armies in our region, as compared with the capabilities of our states.”

Expert and political circles in Armenia as well as its neighboring countries paid a special attention to Serzh Sargsyan’s following remark in this statement: “Today Armenian army’s armaments include such kinds of arms states 10-20 times bigger than Armenia wish they had.”

What armaments are implied, especially what types of troops are Armenian side’s advantage over its neighbors? These are questions that interest not only the Armenian information and expert circles.

Panorama.am made an attempt to study the issue and to have an idea about answers to these questions with the help of expert estimations, the results of which we are bringing below.

Before proceeding to proper material, we will mention that no fact or commentary on possessing these or those arms (including those to be presented below) should be accepted unequivocally as we deal with the military sphere and, it goes without saying, information about the military sphere, especially these or those arms concretely, is not completely available in any country of the world. Thus, in the article we purely present information of open sources and expert conclusions drawn on that basis.

So, what weapons did Serzh Sargsyan imply in his NATO statement?

According to Caucasus Institute Political Studies Department head Sergey Minasyan, President Serzh Sargsyan, possibly, implied the Air Defense System and it is likely that he meant missile systems. Sergey Minasyan grounded his suppositions saying: “Enterprises of military-industrial significance dislocated in Soviet Armenia under the USSR mostly worked in the air defense system, at that, they were of primary significance throughout the USSR. It is clear that over the past 20 years Armenia must have advanced fairly in that aspect.”

According to Sergey Minasyan, one may not doubt that Armenia not only actively collaborated with its foreign partners in the sphere but also made elaborations and solutions of its own. “Consequently, at the moment, Armenia has the strongest Air Defense System of land dislocation in the region,” the expert assured adding: “I think President Sargsyan, probably, meant that.”

As to missile systems, Sergey Minasyan mentioned that Armenia must have surpassed its regional neighbors in terms of these weapons as well. Yet, he found it difficult to mention concrete facts and weapons. Instead, he reminded that the Armenian army distinguishes itself by high efficiency in use of conventional weapons.

“In principle, one of Armenian army’s strong features is artillery. It is the most wide-spread type of troops in Armenian armed forces ammunitions in terms of both quantity and quality (with the exception of several volley systems of far-ranging operation). In some parameters, in essence, in the quantitative respect, it even surpasses Azerbaijani artillery troops,” S. Minasyan mentioned.

In response to our remark that the country of potential military operations (NKR territory) has a mountainous relief with no possibility of wide manoeuvre, Sergey Minasyan said that this peculiarity also makes important the factor of artillery. “In consideration that the Armenian troops have an echeloned defensive line and are not going to attack at the first stage of hypothetical military operations, artillery gets much significance,” he said adding: “Agreeing with you in the issue that possible fights will proceed in battlefields of mountainous relief where land motorized infantry will have much significance and taking into account Karabakh people’s fighting ability one can say that the mentioned factor also strengthens the Armenian army.”

We reminded the expert that lately, information was published in press, according to which, Armenia managed to make objects flying without pilots by its own plan and 15 units have been already given to the armed forces. Sergey Minasyan found it difficult to comment upon the information mentioning that it is inappropriate to consider the matter with only information in press as a basis.

Nevertheless, if the rumors reflect reality, what additional possibilities will those objects give to the Armenian armed forces? “Objects flying without pilots will allow, first of all, to carry out efficient reconnaissance of Azerbaijani positions. Besides, taking the information as a basis, they will be also very efficient for Armenian artillerists in their battery-fighting works to silence enemy’s reactive systems and heavy artillery,” our interlocutor noted assuring that the mentioned factors are especially important in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone. “Theoretically, only long position fights are possible there to be accompanied by active artillery fire on both sides. And objects flying without pilots that can systematize Armenian artillery fire make the Armenian armed forces considerably stronger.”

In terms of military and political balance in the region in time of peace, according to the expert, rumors on flying objects make it necessary to draw serious conclusions.”Our counter-partner Azerbaijan declares that the objects were created in cooperation with Israel only, while, I think the Armenian military and industrial complex worked out those objects in cooperation with either Russian or western, but never Israeli specialists. That is, it brightly symbolizes Armenia’s military and political, military and technical policy’s complementary nature.”

Though the expert did not speak of concrete weapons and armaments, nevertheless some organizations’ studies and data available in open sources make it possible to have some idea about them.

Thus, the Armenian armed forces (as well as the Azerbaijani army) use weapons of Soviet (Russian) development in the Air Defense sphere. According to the data of Wikipedia (http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air Defense Troops of Armenia), which, for its part, refers to researches by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Britain, the RA Armed Forces have at their disposal Igla and Strela-2 mobile antiaircraft missile systems, C-60 anti-aircraft guns, C-75 , C-125 Neva-M and Osa short-range antiaircraft missile complex as well as mid-range antiaircraft missile Krug complex.

And Armenian air territory is defended by the C-300 antiaircraft missile complexes of Russian production. According to NATO classification, this system named Gladiator is ranked among one of the leading weapons in air defense. It is intended to counteract all types of flying objects (including ballistic and missile targets) and even has a possibility to hit a land target with coordinates found out in advance.

C-300 Gladiator is available in very few countries in the modern world. Besides the producing countries – Russia and China - as well as Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan inheriting it from the USSR, it is dislocated in another 15 countries. Note that Iran is the only country among Armenia’s neighbors which, possibly, has such systems. And in the Great Near East only Cyprus (the systems are dislocated in the territory of Greece, Crete) and Syria possess this weapons considered guarantee of air territory security.

Note that the MIM-104 Patriot American systems of the same class are also rare in our region. There are not such in the post-Soviet area at all, and among Near East countries Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have those systems.

As to missile weapons, open source data in this sphere are very limited. The only source is the Arms Control Association, U.S., according to which, Armenia possesses Skud ballistic rockets.

In all probability, P-17 operation and tactical Russian ballistic rockets working with Soviet liquid fuel are implied. Their range is 300 km. These rockets produced under the Soviet Union can bear various warheads, up to the nuclear one.