The Unity 2014 exercises taking place in Armenia have become unprecedented in the modern history of this republic and Nagorno-Karabakh (since 1991). In fact, in the shortest possible time, 70-80% of the personnel of the Armed Forces of Armenia and the NKR Defense Army were sent to training ranges in full combat readiness (47 thousand soldiers participate in the exercises, the total number of 2 armies is 60-70 thousand servicemen).
The amount of military equipment used in the exercise is also surprising. In total, the RA Armed Forces and the NKR JSC sent more than 2,000 artillery pieces into a training battle (light mortars are probably also taken into account), 850 armored vehicles, 450 units of various air defense systems (MANPADS, anti-aircraft artillery, air defense systems), more than 1,500 anti-tank weapons, up to 5,000 units special and automotive equipment. What can you find out and what conclusions can you draw by analyzing the information about the ongoing exercises?
1) The highest combat readiness
Very few countries can afford to take and send 80% of the personnel and almost all the equipment to the exercises. In this case, the secret lies in the fact that the Armed Forces of Armenia and the NKR JSC are always and in full force on alert, not requiring time and additional funds for deployment. In fact, the army is constantly in the state in which it should be during a large-scale war. An interesting comparison - the largest exercises in the history of the Russian Federation (since 1991) were held in 2013, 160 thousand servicemen participated in them - about 20% of the personnel of the Russian Armed Forces. In Azerbaijan, exercises with such a high percentage of personnel involvement have not been conducted either.
2) The discrepancy between the officially declared quantities of military equipment and the real figures
It has long been known that Armenia and the NKR are actively purchasing military equipment from the Russian Federation at domestic Russian prices, but this is hardly reflected in official reports. And if the number of equipment put up for the exercises by Armenia corresponds to the general ideas, then the equipment of the NKR JSC is much higher than what was previously thought. In fact, the information that all "surplus" equipment goes straight to Nagorno-Karabakh is confirmed.
Based on the data provided by the press service of the NKR JSC, it is possible to draw conclusions about the minimum amount of equipment available in the unrecognized republic's arsenal:
1550 pieces of artillery equipment - this probably includes the ACS Akatsia, Gvozdika, towed guns D-20, D-30, Hyacinth-B, MLRS Grad, various mortars, and Rapier anti-tank guns.
600 armored vehicles - mainly represented by T-72B and BMP-1 and 2 tanks. Armored personnel carriers in the NKR JSC and the Armenian Armed Forces are rarely used, since tracked BMPs have better maneuverability, as well as armor.
300 units of air defense systems - presented by the S-300PS air defense system (previously "shone" in the photo on the Internet) Igla MANPADS, Strela-10 air defense systems, Cuban air defense systems, S-125 air defense systems, Shilka and ZU-23 anti-aircraft guns.
1,300 anti-tank weapons - various anti-tank missile systems (Fagot, Konkurs, Shturm-S, Milan, presumably Kornet) and hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers.
3) Another debunking of the myth that only Azerbaijan is actively arming itself
Of course, Baku spends much more money than Yerevan and Stepanakert and buys, in general, more modern weapons. However, this does not mean that the Armenians "sit back" and do nothing - over the past years, a huge saturation of the troops stationed in Karabakh with military equipment has been created. A few interesting figures on this topic: there is approximately one tank for 75 servicemen of the NKR AO. For the Russian Federation, this figure is about 266, for the United States about 260, for Azerbaijan 155. It is also interesting that the Armed Forces of Armenia and the NKR JSC have a noticeable advantage over Azerbaijan in operational-tactical missile systems. Yerevan and Stepanakert have at least 8 launchers of Tochka-U OTRK at their disposal (all of them are participating in the exercises) and 8 launchers of R-17 "Scud-B" ballistic missiles (range of 300 km allows reaching almost any point in Azerbaijan), and Baku has 4 PU Tochka-U and a small number of Israeli MLRS LYNX, capable of using OTRK Extra.
