Azernews.Az

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

The Armenian leadership tries to start a senseless and unpromising for them arms race with Azerbaijan. It is obvious that this race will finally exhaust the Armenian state budget. Comparing the economic, military and industrial potential of Azerbaijan and Armenia, the fact that Armenia by all indicators is hopelessly behind Azerbaijan is indisputable.

Today, Armenia is tempted by the idea of possessing some "weapon of retribution". First, Yerevan leased Iskander ballistic missile system from Moscow. However, after Belarus-made Polonez and Israeli-made Lora missile complexes appeared in the Azerbaijan Army, Armenian leased weapon become useless. Yerevan is well aware that in the event of clashes, the entire military infrastructure of Armenia and in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan will be quickly destroyed.

The Armenian dream of revenge on Azerbaijan continued, and Pashinyan announced the delivery of four Russian Su-30 SM fighter-bombers and the possible delivery of another eight Su-30 SM.

It becomes funny when a small country with poor budget talks about buying this expensive aircraft requiring highly qualified pilots and technicians and consuming a lot of fuel. These purchases cannot be justified either from a military or from an economic point of view. The purchase of such an expensive aircraft is a huge blow for the Armenian budget.

Armenians had to get into debt, taking a loan from Russia, in order to make this dubious acquisition.

Interestingly, at a recent press conference, Azerbaijan’s Defense Minister, Colonel-General Zakir Hasanov noted that Su-30 SM aircraft are not suitable for military operations in Karabakh.

"Military aircraft of the Azerbaijani Army are ready to perform all the tasks. The helicopter fleet of the Azerbaijani Army has been fully modernized. We use the most modern helicopters capable of hitting a target from a long distance," Hasanov stressed.

To explain the unjustifiability of Armenia's acquisitions, it is sufficient only to think where will the Su-30 SM fly? Armenia is a very small country for this type of aircraft. To perform a normal flight, a huge amount of aviation kerosene is needed, and in fact, these aircraft must fly in circles around Armenia to spend it and land. Was it worth to get into another big loan?

At the same time, the four aircraft purchased by Armenia cannot change the balance of power and are not comparable with the power of the Air Force and Air Defense of Azerbaijan. The large SU-30 SM is not an advantage of Yerevan; in fact, it simply means that these aircraft are a well-marked target for Azerbaijani pilots and anti-aircraft gunners.

In turn, the Azerbaijani aviation mainly focuses not on quantity, but on quality. Azerbaijani military aviation, unlike the Armenian one, is thoughtful in its choice of the main types of aircraft.

Thus, Pashinyan’s fairy tale about the next miracle weapon in the face of the Su-30 SM will remain so.