Armenia Confirms Possession Of Sophisticated Missiles
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RFE/RL -- Armenia officially acknowledged on Monday that its armed forces are equipped with Russian-made surface-to-air missiles widely regarded as one of the world’s most potent anti-aircraft weapons.
The Defense Ministry in Yerevan said Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian visited one of the Armenian army’s anti-aircraft units and “familiarized himself with the work of the state-of-the-art S-300 air-defense systems” over the weekend. A ministry statement said he also inspected new facilities built there.
Originally designed in the Soviet Union in the late 1970s and repeatedly upgraded since then, the systems have a firing range of up to 200 kilometers. Their radars can simultaneously track up to 100 targets, including both aircraft and cruise missiles.
Russia deployed at least one battery of S-300s in Armenia in the late 1990s, significantly beefing up its military base stationed there. Russian and Armenian forces have since been jointly protecting Armenia’s airspace. Their integrated air-defense system was given a “regional” status by the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in early 2007.
Top Russian military officials said at the time that Moscow has further upgraded Armenia’s anti-aircraft capacity and trained Armenian specialists to operate S-300s. The Armenian military confirmed that, saying the training process began in 2005. It would not clarify until now whether the Russians have actually transferred such weapons to their Armenian ally.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service, Defense Ministry spokesman Davit Karapetian confirmed that the Armenian army now has S-300s in its missile arsenal. He declined to specify their number and dates of delivery.
According to the Defense Ministry statement, Ohanian inspected the Armenian S-300s after inaugurating a new Russian-Armenian “air-defense command point” possessing “state-of-the-art equipment.” The statement quoted him as saying that the development raised Russian-Armenian military cooperation to a “qualitatively new plane.”
The announcement follows media reports that Moscow is planning to sell two batteries of S-300 to Azerbaijan, in a deal worth $300 million. The reports, not denied by Russian officials, have raised concern in Armenia and Karabakh.
Opposition groups there say the long-range missiles would seriously limit the Armenian military’s ability to hit strategic targets in Azerbaijan and would thereby encourage Baku to try to resolve the Karabakh dispute by force.
Ohanian dismissed such concerns in an August interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “We are very familiar with those systems, we have been exploiting them for quite a long time, and we know the possibilities of reducing the effectiveness of such systems,” he said.
“Even in case of acquiring those systems, Azerbaijan will need quite a lot of time to develop an integrated radio-technical system catering for them,” added the minister.
Copyright (c) 2010. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
Original link: http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/2254125.html
Comments
And why is this "one of those RARE moments" may I ask? You should always feel proud of your country, not just because we have big weapons.
And you're wasting your oil money buying some junk weapons, that nobody will let you use it. This is an old trick to extract free oil resources and money from rich but ignorant states. After all Karabagh was given to Azerbaijan for exact that reason by Stalin. Otherwise why would've anyone included region with 80% of Armenian population into the neighboring republic.
Also, if you keep drumming everywhere that states territorial integrity is superior over people’s right for self determination, you can forget about the western Azerbaijan, which , unlike Karabagh, might be your real future. But so far your leaders are either too stupid or coward to see that. No wonder they don't like you there too.
As for the Azeri post have you been following the developments around Kosovo? the right for self determination is not based on the will of the oppressor. The closing of Armenian schools, the massacres, the destruction of Armenian historical monuments do you think the US organizes mass killings of hispanics in southern US like Azerbaijan did in late 1980s??? Or do you think the US government destroys the hispanic cultural heritage like Azerbaijan did in Jugha???? Azeris are more than willing to destroy everything that is connected to Armenians and distort the facts just like you do in your post - how Azeri of you.
It's not sophisticated because it is a very simple truth! Google Stalin, Armenia, Azerbaijan and you'll come up with zillions of documents and excerpts from books pointing out this "truth". If you are someone who can't accept "truth" and reasoning then you are not worth the time buddy, it's like reading poetry to an "eshak" waste of time .... use a stick and the "eshak" will understand what to do. I personally in a very unsophisticated way divide people to two main categories, people who one can reason with and people who one can't ... either you can reason with someone and find a win-win solution... or not ... the guy is a bone-head, doesn't understand reasoning, he's not reasonable, doesn't want to except facts, then just claim your rights with whatever means at your disposal, including and not limited to use of force.
Do you think the hatred of people from Caucasus that happens in Moscow is about changing status quo? Or do you think that it is funny? When an idiot pushes hatred toward another nation the government steps in and makes sure that idiots are punished. Your government decided to give rebars to idiots and told them kill all Armenians
No my dear Azeri, he did so because he wanted to guarantee neither of the republics will gain independence easily, that way he made sure a war would erupt as soon as either/both of the Soviet republics decide to gain independence. The same technique was used in Soviet economy, raw-material from one republic was processed in another republic [meaning that the processing factories were built intentionally in another republic] this way both republics had to stick to each other, independence would have been costly (one didn't have *both* the raw material and the factories). In short a lot of these measures were taken to make sure soviet republics couldn't break away from the center (Moscow, USSR).
The same thing happened ethnically and with borders, people were living on their mother land and that land was *in* Soviet Union, as such the Soviet authorities could have divided it formally as they liked (like countries do with states, regions, villages, city boundaries so on) ...now... they drew the line so a little part of this one gets included into the other, this would make sure independence would result in disputes and war.
That region with majority of Armenian population was included into Azerbaijan so as soon as either of the republics try to get independence trouble would erupt, which it did (unfortunately) . It was an ingenious strategy politically but it was an unhumane one.
Oh NO! *You* know VERY WELL that's a recipe for disaster!! The highest level of autonomy is liberty which they already have. But I'm sure if both sides go to some concessions we can solve this thing wisely and peacefully. I think Azeris are little too much concerned with their image and that line on paper (border on maps). When we talk about territorial integrity we should really remember that in our case borders were just lines drawn by soviet politicians, we should focus on facts "on the ground" (literally) which ethnicity lives where and try to solve it out so afterward they'll be able to live peacefully. Others in Eastern Bloc did it we might be able to do it too. The practical would be thinking "damn those lands with Armenians on it, let Armenians keep it because anyways it's a recipe for trouble for us. If the land is populated 80% by Armenians it's theirs. But ask for some concessions in other areas for it. I'm sure Armenian side is ready to deal on things [*except* land with Armenians living on it]. And there is no doubt there must be concessions from both sides but we should focus on what those concessions are. And for US, Russia, Israel, etc. we both know "nations don't have friends, they have interests". We need some flexibility from Azeri side about that "formal line on paper". Being obsessed with it doesn't help, facts on the ground should lead us.
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Kind of I will :) I'm sure if it wasn't for this discussion we could have been really good friends.