India-Armenia Defence Export Deal

October 1, 2022

India has inked an defence export deal with Armenia, which is facing threat from border tensions from Azerbaijan.

Key facts

Military equipment like missiles, rockets and ammunition will be exported by India to Armenia under the newly signed export contract.
The export order includes six additional first-ever export of indigenous Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launchers, anti-tank rockets and ammunitions.
The estimated value of this contract is over Rs.2,000 crore.
This comes amid the rising border tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan The latter has close diplomatic and military ties with Pakistan and Turkiye.
Over the years, despite the physical distance, indirect links have arisen between Armenia-Azerbaijan and India-Pakistan.
Azerbaijan had used Turkish drones at the war with Armenia and is currently in talks with Pakistan to procure JF-17 fighter aircraft.
In 2017, Turkiye, Pakistan and Azerbaijan have signed a Trilateral Ministers Agreement to promote defence cooperation and strengthen the existing bilateral military assistance arrangements.
Hence, the recent defence export deal between India and Armenia is of strategic significance.
It is also providing a major boost for the indigenous defence industry.
India’s defence export has reached a record Rs.13,000 crore in the 2021-22 fiscal. This is eight times higher than export value recorded five years ago.
In 2020, the Indian Government had set a target of Rs.35,000 crore export in aerospace and defence sector in the next five years (2025).
It is also looking to achieve Rs 1.75 lakh crore (25 billion USD) turnover in defence manufacturing by 2025.
Currently, India is exporting defence equipment to 75 countries, delivering equipment like weapon simulators, tear gas launcher, torpedo loading mechanism, alarm monitoring & control, night vision monocular & binocular, light-weight torpedo & fire control systems and others.

About Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launcher

The Pinaka is a multi-barrel rocket launcher developed by DRDO. It is currently used by the Indian Army, especially at the international borders with Pakistan and China. This indigenously developed rocket launcher is capable of locating the enemy launchers and tracking the incoming artillery shells, mortar rounds and rockets. One Pinaka has 6 launchers, 6 loader trucks, 6 replenishment vehicles, two command post-transporting vehicles and a vehicle to transport the meteorological radar to provide wind-related data.

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