Armenia broadens procurement horizons in drive to modernise armed forces

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In the aftermath of its defeat in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, Armenia has worked to reduce its reliance on Russia as a security partner. It has diversified its defence partnerships by forging new arms deals with countries including France and India to modernise the country’s military.

Two years after its defeat in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, Armenia began a defence-acquisition push that has seen it pivot away from its traditional security guarantor and source of defence materiel, Russia, and look elsewhere for more modern equipment.

Driven in no small part by a deterioration in relations with Moscow – which offered little support to Yerevan in the 2020 conflict and subsequent skirmishes with Azerbaijan, and whose weapons deliveries have slowed down despite prepayments – Armenia has instead turned to France, India and possibly Greece, for a range of materiel.

Armenia’s recent procurement efforts are introducing modern air defence and artillery capabilities (see Table 1) to its armed forces, which have traditionally fielded Soviet- or Russian-built weaponry. The new systems include a mix of Western equipment, such as KNDS France’s CAESAR self-propelled artillery and Indian systems like Larsen & Toubro’s Pinaka multiple rocket launcher.