Armenia seeks Indian help to train its Su-30SM pilots : Want to equip its Sukhois with Indian missiles

Source : Indian Defence Updates (IDU)

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Armenia acquired 4 Sukhoi Su-30SM fighters from Russia in December 2019, but the Armenian Air Force didn’t deploy those fighters in the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh war against Azerbaijan.

For this Armenian Govt and Air Force was heavily criticized by the Armenian media and the possible reason that came up was that Armenian pilots were not trained well on those Sukhois for operations. There were also reports emerged that Armenia didn’t have adequate air-to-air missiles for air warfare for operations against Azerbaijan forces in the 2020 war.

As per the latest media reports, Armenia has decided to diversify its military resources acquisition to strengthen its Air Force and has sought India’s help in training its pilots on Sukhoi fighters and also seeks to equip its Sukhoi fighters with some of the Indian air to air and air to ground missiles which include 110km range Astra Mark 1 air to air missile, 100km range Smart Anti Airfield Weapon (SAAW) and BrahMos Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM).