Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

[Anoush]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Thanks for the good news you provided us Fed jan. Let us hope that Armenia will put into good use the money that is going to be allocated to her.

[ZORAVAR]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Unfortunately I have not been posting regularly on this thread because of an extremely busy schedule. Anyways, Your humble ZORAVAR is now back (at least momentarily) to bring you news on what is happening with Azeri arms procurements.

Now that the price of oil is above $70 per barrel, our enemy is again embarking on weapons purchase (as well as local production).

Here is a brief overview of some of the news I have compiled about their production plans.

ZORAVAR
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ISTIQLAL ANTI-MATERIAL RIFLE

They have shown this rifle of their creation at the IDEF 2009 arms exhibition which took place in Turkey earlier this year.

There is little information on it. It may not even be in serial production yet.
It is a semi-automatic gun chambered for the powerfull 14.5 mm Soviet round. With that caliber, it can be deadly at very long ranges (3 kms).However, I strongly doubt in the Azeri capability in producing a quality barrel with high accuracy. They probably are using barrels made for the Russian KPVT automatic guns which are used in full automatic (machinegun) type shooting and don't have surgical accuracy. From the photos, I also can see that the Azeri "engineers" just mated to it the stock of the Russian SVD Dragunov rifle.

The weapon may be crude and produced with many "of the shelf" and "copyand paste" parts. But this kind of weapon is very suitable for warfare in mountainous areas. Our young guys on the front should be wary of it.

By the way, our own troops (Armenia's and NK's) use the Serbian made "Black Arrow" (Cerny Strela) anti-material rifle. It is very accurate at ranges upto 2 kms but uses a smaller and less powerfull caliber (12.7 mm).

For more photos of the Aerbaijani ISTIGLAL: http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2...-sniper-rifle/

MULTIPLE LAUNCH ROCKET SYSTEM

Azerbaijan Iklim institue and Roketsan (of Turkey) started producing 122 and 105mm MLRS's... While Rocket launchers and cables are being produced by Iklim institues, Roketsan will produce only rockets.

These rockets are based on the well known Russian BM-21 GRAD. MAny countries (including Israel and Turkey) have copied it. The rockets have a range of upto 45 km.

Turkey is helping the Azeris establish an arms industry. Aliev has grandiose projects in mind, including armoured vehicles and helicopters... Some sort of an annoucement about military projects is expected from the Azeri defense ministry later on this summer....

ZORAVAR will keep you posted.

[Alexandros]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Finally, some good news.
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House panel maintains aid level for Armenia
17.06.2009 21:18 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The House Appropriations Subcommittee responsible for U.S. foreign aid policy, this morning, voted to maintain U.S. economic assistance to Armenia at last year's level of $48 million and to increase humanitarian assistance to Nagorno Karabakh to an unprecedented annual allocation of $10 million, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

The Subcommittee voted to maintain military assistance parity to Armenia and Azerbaijan, keeping foreign military financing to both countries at $3 million. The panel chose not to accept President Obama's proposals, included in the FY10 budget that he released earlier this year, to reduce economic aid to Armenia by 38%, from $48 million $30 million, and to tilt the military aid balance in favor of Azerbaijan.

The Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, which is chaired by Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), also strengthened language governing the President's authority to waive Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, a provision of law that restricts aid to Azerbaijan due to its blockades and other offensive actions against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. The new language, according those close to the work of the subcommittee, will require closer Congressional consultation prior to any future waivers of this law.

"We value Chairwoman Lowey's leadership and the efforts of Rep. Adam Schiff, Armenian Caucus Co-Chairman Mark Kirk, Representatives Steve Rothman, Jesse Jackson Jr, Betty McCollum, Barbara Lee, Steve Israel, and our many friends on the Subcommittee for constructively working to address our community's foreign aid priorities," said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. "We are gratified that the panel restored military aid parity, met the Armenian Caucus request of $10 million for Nagorno Karabakh, and strengthened the waiver language for Section 907. We will, in the coming days, seek to build on this progress by working with our friends on the Senate side to bring the economic aid figure to Armenia up to the $70 million level requested by the Armenian Caucus."

In an April 3, 2009 letter sent to the panel earlier this year, members of the Armenian Caucus, co-chaired by Representatives Frank Pallone and Mark Kirk, called for strengthening Section 907, allocating $70 million in economic aid to Armenia, $5million in assistance to Armenia's military, $10 million in development aid to Nagorno Karabakh, and the removal of official barriers to U.S.-Nagorno Karabakh contacts and communications.

http://www.panarmenian.net/news/eng/?nid=33148

Thanks for posting.This is good news!

[KarotheGreat]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Zoravar good to see you posting again, and can you give us some good news

[ninetoyadome]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Armenian army ranks 68 in Global Military Rating

Military Parade Dedicated to 15th Anniversary Armenia's Independence
Armenia ranks 68th in rating of armies of the world according to the Press.ge news portal. According to the same source Georgia ranks 94th, Azerbaijan 83-rd.

The Georgian news source has extracted the data using the Strategypage. I tried quite hard to find this information at the source, but was unable to. However, the information is interesting, although – not very reliable.

If this is too, it would be just incredible, that Armenia is so far ahead from both its Caucasian ex-Soviet neighbors, despite the fact, that last year its military budget – around $400 million, was half that of Georgia and 6 times less than that of it’s main rival – Azerbaijan, which announced $ 2 billion in defense spending for 2008.

Coming back to the Georgian news report cited above, it says the rating is based on data of land troops and air forces. The rating contains two basic indicators: COMBAT POWER LAND and Total Quality Index. The Combat Power Land includes such parameters as number of soldiers and weaponry, technical characteristics and so on.

The Total Quality Index includes the quality of commandment, effectiveness of weapon and the level of weapon adequacy, battle experience, the level of logistics and communications, as well as historic military-culture traditions.

Top 20 mighty armies are as follows – the USA (9300), Israel (1280), China (882), the UK (819), India (801), Russia (714), Germany (393), Japan (382), South Korea (359), France (351), Taiwan (184), Pakistan (168), Saudi Arabia (140), Egypt (138), Italy (134), North Korea (131), Iran (113), Switzerland (108) and Spain (108).

Below are links to a couple of other information sources on defense budgets and armies of the region: Moscow Defense briefing, The Armenian Economist, Wikipedia.

http://ditord.com/2009/01/21/armenian-army-ranks-68-in-global-military-rating/

i dont know how reliable this article is.

[ZORAVAR]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Ninetoyadome,

Altough the rankings in the Caucasus are more or less correct, the above article is BS.

Just an example: Saudi Arabia's army superior to Iran's!!!!...Give me a break.

They may have the latest weapons (much of which simply rots under the desert sun), but they have no qualified people to operate them, command and leadership are a joke. Motivation and dedication of the troops is non-existant.

These kind of rankings of armies , weapon systems etc. are not even worth the paper they are written on.

[Anoush]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Ninetoyadome,

Altough the rankings in the Caucasus are more or less correct, the above article is BS.

Just an example: Saudi Arabia's army superior to Iran's!!!!...Give me a break.

They may have the latest weapons (much of which simply rots under the desert sun), but they have no qualified people to operate them, command and leadership are a joke. Motivation and dedication of the troops is non-existant.

These kind of rankings of armies , weapon systems etc. are not even worth the paper they are written on.

Zoravar, it's good to see you. Although I understand and agree that Iran is obviously much more superior than Saudi Arabia; however in terms of military cleverness and strategic superiority of Armenia's army I don't think that the rankings are too far off than what it is said above. Sorry, you said it already that the rankings in the Caucasus are more or less correct. Then I agree with you. You know, though the "azeris" have the material power to spend lavishly and "stupidly" for super arms and such; but if a war broke out, I still like to believe that we may win the war again. Although it would be a disaster for the people in the region.

[Yedtarts]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Ninetoyadome,

Altough the rankings in the Caucasus are more or less correct, the above article is BS.

Just an example: Saudi Arabia's army superior to Iran's!!!!...Give me a break.

They may have the latest weapons (much of which simply rots under the desert sun), but they have no qualified people to operate them, command and leadership are a joke. Motivation and dedication of the troops is non-existant.

These kind of rankings of armies , weapon systems etc. are not even worth the paper they are written on.

I think when they ranked Saudi Arabia they had in mind that the US army will do their fights, that’s why it was ranked so high. Money talks!

[Muhaha]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Usually, I'd say this is more rhetoric, but this guys retardation scares me. What if he actually tries to pull something?
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AZERBAIJAN: PRESIDENT SAYS BAKU READY FOR WAR WITH ARMENIA

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declared on June 26 that his country is ready to go to war with neighboring Armenia "at any moment," in order to regain the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory.

"Talks . . . have brought about no results. Under the circumstances we, of course, have to rely on our military power," Aliyev said during an Army Day address, the APA news agency reported.

After observing military exercises, Aliyev claimed that Azerbaijan has the strongest army in the South Caucasus. The president added that it was Azerbaijan’s "sovereign right" to resort to force, if Armenia did not show more negotiating flexibility, Russia’s Regnum news agency reported.

Several commentators in Armenia said that Aliyev’s words were meant for domestic consumption, and did not reflect a major shift in Baku’s position on the Karabakh peace process.

http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/news/articles/eav062609a.shtml

[Icy]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Haha Baku ready for war?
Alright lets go at it again,
maybe this time they can lose 40%
of their land