New Delhi: Armenia has reached out to India for possible procurement of Indian missiles including the indigenous beyond visual range Astra air-to-air missile and possible upgrade of their Sukhoi 30s, ThePrint has learnt.
Sources in the defence establishment said that the talks are on and still at a very initial stage.
Armenia is looking to upgrade its air force and is seeking help from India in terms of weaponry and maintainability of their assets, the sources added.
“The Su30s operated by Armenia are different from what we operate. So one will really have to see what all can be done. The talks are just in the initial stage,” a source told ThePrint. “They (Armenians) want to upgrade their Su30s and integrate our weapons.”
The weapons being sought by Armenia also include air-to-surface guided munitions.
There was no confirmation on whether Armenia was also seeking the air launched BrahMos missiles.
The sources explained that there are multiple protocols when it comes to exports of missiles and multiple issues have to be tackled first.
Armenia had bought four Su30s from Russia in 2019 but those did not take part in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan as the aircraft lacked fire power including guided air-to-surface munitions.
Interestingly, Azerbaijan has beefed up its Soviet era Su25s with help from Turkey.
Another area that Armenia is looking at is maintaining issues of the Su30s and also training of its pilots, the sources said.
India operates close to about 272 Su 30 MKIs and has managed to locally manufacture some of the components of the aircraft which helps in reducing the dependability on Russia for service and spares.
Incidentally, the four Su30s operated by Armenia are largely known as “white elephants” because of large investment without being of use. On the other hand, Azerbaijan invested in drones and loitering munitions, which were able to take out multiple air defence assets of Armenia and also pulverise its armoured columns.
Since the conflict, Armenia has become a big defence export destination for India and has, in the past, bought several systems, including artillery guns besides certain kinds of missiles, mortars, radars, small arms and sight systems.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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