Armenia has acquired U.S.-made V-BAT reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicles. The total value of the deal amounts to approximately 11 million dollars.
However, according to the former head of the military-industrial committee Avetik Kerobyan, this purchase does not represent a strategically significant acquisition. Kerobyan notes that such cooperation is not new. Back in the early 2000s, Armenia was supplied with military radio communication equipment that operated under restrictions and continues to be used according to the same logic to this day.
Based on the prices of similar systems sold to other countries last year, it can be assumed that the deal involves three or four units. In terms of technical specifications, they only slightly outperform the capabilities of Armenian domestic manufacturers. The main feature of the V-BAT is its ability to perform vertical takeoff and landing using an internal combustion engine. However, Kerobyan points out that local companies have long mastered all the key technologies that are presented as advantages of this system.
Moreover, these UAVs have not yet been fully adopted even by the armed forces of the manufacturing country itself. They are mainly promoted as having been successfully used in other conflict zones, particularly in Ukraine.
According to Kerobyan, this deal is being presented to Armenia as a sign of friendship or goodwill. From the standpoint of military efficiency, however, the same 11 million dollars could have been used far more purposefully, since Armenian military-industrial companies already produce a sufficient number of reconnaissance drones and can rapidly increase production volumes if necessary.
The main advantage of locally produced systems is that they are created domestically. Companies can operate in three shifts, while repair and return to service are carried out quickly and efficiently. This, he says, constitutes a genuine strategic advantage.
Kerobyan also notes that the ability to remain airborne for 10–14 hours has long ceased to be a novelty for Armenian manufacturers. There are companies whose UAVs have already exceeded this threshold. There are also electric vertical takeoff models capable of operating from very small areas and performing automatic landings.
Reconnaissance effectiveness largely depends on surveillance and imaging equipment. However, the former official is confident that the systems supplied to Armenia will not be equipped with the same quality of sensors used by the manufacturing country’s own forces.
According to him, such equipment is always delivered to non-allied countries with software and functional limitations. Previously supplied radio communication systems even monitored the geographic area of use at the sensor level. Kerobyan does not rule out the possibility that during a combat mission it may turn out that the UAV simply does not operate outside Armenia’s territory.
Against this backdrop, he reminds that Armenian UAVs are in fact capable of conducting deep reconnaissance beyond national borders, operating under GPS jamming conditions, flying at night, and transmitting data via their own encrypted communication channels. In other words, Armenia already possesses reconnaissance capabilities that the newly acquired systems do not, in practice, enhance.