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At a press conference held on May 23 in the press room of the Russian Izvestia news agency, when referring to Armenia’s acquisition of weapons from other countries, former Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia Arshak Karapetyan stated that 90 percent of the weapons acquired by Armenia are not usable.
“According to my information, everything they procured, I don’t want to list the countries so as not to offend them, but 90% of everything they acquired is not usable, and for various reasons, some for technical reasons. They say they bought artillery weapons, but there are no shells for them, because the standards are different. Each shot, if a Russian shell is fired, costs, say, $300, while this one will cost $1,500. “In other words, every shot becomes more expensive. I don’t know how they will pull it off. According to my information, Armenia’s economy is in a terrible state,” Karapetyan noted.
It should be noted that Arshak Karapetyan has created a political party, and, although he lives in Russia, he is going to run in the Armenian parliamentary elections to be held in 2026.
The Fact Investigation Platform reached out to military experts to comment on Arshak Karapetyan’s statements. The latter assessed his statements as manipulative and unprofessional.
In an interview with FIP.am, Vazgen Ghazaryan emphasized that Karapetyan’s statement is misinformation in nature, lacking real statistics or substantiation: “What is this figure based on? How did he get that 90 percent figure? Moreover, as regards the caliber of shells, the 155 mm is used all over the world, while the 152 mm is used by Russia and several other countries. And large-scale production, according to the laws of economics, is always cheaper.”
He also noted that Ukraine buys 155 mm shells from India for $2,500-3,000, while Armenia bought 152 mm shells from Russia for $4,000-6,000.
“The caliber of Western weapons is not only more common, but also more competitive in price. Moreover, the efficiency of Western weapons, for example, 155 mm artillery, is higher than that of Russian ones, meaning that while Russia strikes areas, Ukraine strikes precise targets. The war in 2020 is also an example of that. In the 1920s, Western approaches, Western technologies, and the Western battle management system were in competition with the Soviet and Russian ones, and we lost,” Ghazaryan said.
Eduard Arakelyan, a military expert at the Regional Center for Democracy and Security, noted in an interview with FIP.am that the 155 mm caliber is considered a NATO caliber, it is the most common artillery caliber in the world, used even by Iran.
“The geography of such procurements is broader and more profitable from a diversification perspective. And the market for 152 mm shells is extremely limited. Russia cannot even produce enough for itself and purchases them from North Korea. Thus, what we are buying, replacing the 152 mm with the 155 mm, that is a commendable practice. Karapetyan’s statement is highly politicized and manipulative. “If Arshak Karapetyan were the Minister of Defense now, he would say that we made a good choice,” Arakelyan noted, adding that the weapons recently acquired by Armenia are more modern, more complex, and require training.
Syuzanna Hambardzumyan
