The Armed Forces of Armenia are negotiating the purchase of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other military products from India.
For this purpose, the delegation representing the Ministry of Defense of Armenia went to India in June of this year and met with its Indian partners. During the meeting, the delegation of Armenia presented a list of weapons and equipment they want to buy from India.
Giving a brief statement about the content of the list without going into details, the Indian official said that the list mainly draws attention to UAVs and that there are not only UAVs on that list.
It should be noted that at the meeting held at the Ministry of Defense of Armenia on April 13, Suren Papikyan, the Minister of Defense of Armenia, and Kishan Dan Deval, the Ambassador of India to Armenia, emphasized the importance of signing the military cooperation agreement between the Ministries of Defense of Armenia and India. Later, Ambassador Deval said that the Armenian side is interested in developing defense relations with India.
This is not the first time that the Armenian Armed Forces have shown interest in Indian military products. Emphasizing expanding relations with companies operating in India's defense industry, official Yerevan is taking some tempting steps. There is information that the Ministry of Defense of Armenia, represented by a high-ranking delegation at military exhibitions in India, bought light helmets for special forces, protective clothing for engineering and fortification units, and target systems shooting simulators from this country.
In addition, at the beginning of 2020, Armenia signed an agreement worth 40 million US dollars to purchase 4 "Swathi Weapon Locating Radar" (WLR) counter-battery radar stations from India. India's counter-battery radar was selected as a result of a tender held by Armenia, which included similar equipment manufactured in Russia (1L219M "Zoopark-1M" RLS) and Poland ("Liwiec" RLS).
The counter-battery radar "Swathi WLR" is designed to determine the coordinates of mortars, artillery guns, rocket launchers, and tactical missile systems upon firing or launch. Radar, jointly developed by Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE), Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) laboratory, and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) to detect incoming artillery ammunition missiles, and is a phased array mobile artillery locator set to track. With the help of the radar, it is possible to track up to 7 targets at the same time. The RLS antenna can track munitions flying at 90° vertical and 360° horizontal angles. The radar can track munitions flying at both small and large angles - behind or to the side of the radar or at an angle tilted to the antenna. The radar can operate in mountainous terrain at an altitude of up to 4900 m.
