Armenia Explores Indian Astra Mk1A Integration on Su-30SM Fleet to Outrange PL-15 Equipped Rivals

In a significant step towards boosting its aerial combat capabilities, Armenia has initiated preliminary talks with India to arm its Sukhoi Su-30SM fighter jets with the indigenously developed Astra Mk1A Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVRAAM).

This move highlights a strategic shift for the Armenian Air Force as it seeks to address vulnerabilities in long-range aerial warfare.

It also builds upon the rapidly expanding defence partnership between New Delhi and Yerevan, which already encompasses the supply of Indian artillery, radar systems, and air defence equipment.

At present, the Armenian Air Force operates a limited fleet of four Russian-origin Su-30SM aircraft.

These fighters rely on older R-77 missiles, which have an effective engagement distance of approximately 80 kilometres.

This range has become a severe disadvantage in the region. Notably, Armenia's primary regional adversary, Azerbaijan, recently finalized a deal to acquire JF-17 Block III fighter jets from Pakistan.

These jets come equipped with the Chinese-made PL-15E missile, capable of striking targets up to 145 kilometres away.

To counter this severe imbalance in beyond-visual-range combat, Armenia urgently requires modernized aerial weaponry.

Developed by India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the upcoming Astra Mk1A offers a powerful solution.

Currently in its final testing phase, the new missile variant boasts an impressive strike range of nearly 160 kilometres, a significant improvement over the 110-kilometre range of the original Astra Mk1.

Integrating this missile would not only neutralize the threat posed by the PL-15E but also provide Armenian pilots with a distinct tactical edge in the skies.

Furthermore, it establishes the Astra missile family as a highly attractive export option for other nations flying Russian-built fighter jets.

The ongoing dialogue between the two nations is primarily focused on the technical challenges of mounting the Indian weapon onto the Russian-designed aircraft.

Linking a foreign missile to the Su-30SM's internal software, radar systems, and fire-control mechanisms is a highly complex engineering task.

Fortunately, India holds a unique advantage. Having successfully integrated the Astra missile system into its own large fleet of customized Su-30MKI fighters, Indian engineers possess the vital technical experience required to modify Armenia's jets efficiently.

Meanwhile, India's domestic missile programme continues to advance at a rapid pace.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) already utilizes the base Astra Mk1 on its frontline Su-30MKI squadrons.

The upgraded Mk1A version is scheduled for formal induction once the final validation trials conclude later this year, with manufacturing by Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) expected to begin shortly thereafter.

Looking ahead, Indian scientists are also developing the next-generation Astra Mk2.

Projected to hit targets at an astonishing 220 kilometres, the Mk2 underscores India's commitment to achieving complete self-reliance in cutting-edge, long-range aerial defence systems.

 

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[atg]

We should become active with it and quickly initiate the supai sukhoi upgrades.

Since russia is busy with the Ukraine war the upgrade and services that they would have provided can be done by us. And can also be used for further weapons sales.

 

[Ammoman]

Do we have new engines, software, radar? We don't, we rely on Russia. They send us the critical components and we assemble them. Thats what we do.

Has HAL delivered any Tejas 1A? No, it has no weapons package. Its useless. This is a political exercise to make the government look good.

The program was underfunded and the money came too late. Realistically, HAL needs at least 1 year to get it done. Its realistic. All the promises are only made to make the beurocrats happy. Endless elections.

HAL doesn't have the culture of hard work and doesn't have the top engineers in India. HAL doesn't pay, its beurocratic where the dead wood gets promoted. Everyone is kissing ass and it is the preoccupation of everyone. If someone doesn't get promoted based on seniority, they appeal and it goes on and on.

Use the private sector, they are used to making things happen, employees are the best and they are paid for performing. Failure means they don't paid.

At least use the crony capilist to get things done. They owe India for there success.

 

[Krishna with flute]

What Armenia need to do it to be a partner/customer of super sukhoi program. Super sukhoi will see and shoot down J10 even before J10 can see it. Virupaksha Radar with Gandiv BVR shall be the most lethal combination. it can carry multiple Brahmos NG and 800 KM range Brahmos for long range precision strike.

 

[netram]

Do we have new engines, software, radar? We don't, we rely on Russia. They send us the critical components and we assemble them. Thats what we do.

Unfortunately you are absolutely right. Why the fk do we even have DRDO and CSIR(which is focused on asinine and useless research topics at this point).
India is yet to shed its colonial/bania 'kam dhaam meh joh hoga wo karo' mindset. Development is expensive our priority should be to leverage scale and technology to reduce cost and develop national strategic industrial autonomy. Its insulting that the Chinese who couldnt even feed themselves in the 60s were able to do it ahead of India. Our Pathetic democratic political system is our greatest handicap. In every sector from steel, petrochemicals, nonferrous metals, machinery, shipbuilding, and electronics and their specialzied subsectors, In terms of applied scientific research, in basic scientific research, in share of Engineering graduates(BTech CS grads who cant even read pseudocode dont count as "engineers") and Scientists and Doctors and Teachers, Our political system has turned India into an insulting joke.

Use the private sector, they are used to making things happen, employees are the best and they are paid for performing. Failure means they don't paid.

I understand your frustration but the problem is capital, if PE's solict foreign funds they become susceptible to foreign influence, the other option is to direct capital via domestic banks, at which point we are effectively using public money to feed private enterprises(atleast in HALs case the govt is significant share holder). What India needs is structural PSU reforms that strengthens their autonomy and access to funding from State banks AND the govt should rewrite service rules and amend the fking consitution if they have to(consitution is chief troublemaker that allows PSU employees to behave like lazy parasites, for their priveliges they get they should be forced to make sacrificies that Indian consitution and its left liberal fetishes wouldnot allow)
Industrial development like War requires long term strategic thinking, Indian elites who never faced a real hot war of existential scale like the Japs, Koreans, Chinese, Germans, Singapore, Turks and Americans would never understand, Nehru came close but his liberal fetishes undermined his nationalist objects, a crying shame. Modi did what no indian leader could, he actually managed to corporatize IOFs an absolute win, but those IOFs are still under DoDP which is stupid. All PSUs and DPSUs should directly be placed under an administrative commission that answers directly to the cabinet secretary who answers to the PM, concentrates power, breaks ministerial silos and allows faster decision making, this is a bare minimum, something which the chinese did back in the early 2000s.

 

[atg]

Unfortunately you are absolutely right. Why the fk do we even have DRDO and CSIR(which is focused on asinine and useless research topics at this point).
India is yet to shed its colonial/bania 'kam dhaam meh joh hoga wo karo' mindset. Development is expensive our priority should be to leverage scale and technology to reduce cost and develop national strategic industrial autonomy. Its insulting that the Chinese who couldnt even feed themselves in the 60s were able to do it ahead of India. Our Pathetic democratic political system is our greatest handicap. In every sector from steel, petrochemicals, nonferrous metals, machinery, shipbuilding, and electronics and their specialzied subsectors, In terms of applied scientific research, in basic scientific research, in share of Engineering graduates(BTech CS grads who cant even read pseudocode dont count as "engineers") and Scientists and Doctors and Teachers, Our political system has turned India into an insulting joke.

I understand your frustration but the problem is capital, if PE's solict foreign funds they become susceptible to foreign influence, the other option is to direct capital via domestic banks, at which point we are effectively using public money to feed private enterprises(atleast in HALs case the govt is significant share holder). What India needs is structural PSU reforms that strengthens their autonomy and access to funding from State banks AND the govt should rewrite service rules and amend the fking consitution if they have to(consitution is chief troublemaker that allows PSU employees to behave like lazy parasites, for their priveliges they get they should be forced to make sacrificies that Indian consitution and its left liberal fetishes wouldnot allow)
Industrial development like War requires long term strategic thinking, Indian elites who never faced a real hot war of existential scale like the Japs, Koreans, Chinese, Germans, Singapore, Turks and Americans would never understand, Nehru came close but his liberal fetishes undermined his nationalist objects, a crying shame. Modi did what no indian leader could, he actually managed to corporatize IOFs an absolute win, but those IOFs are still under DoDP which is stupid. All PSUs and DPSUs should directly be placed under an administrative commission that answers directly to the cabinet secretary who answers to the PM, concentrates power, breaks ministerial silos and allows faster decision making, this is a bare minimum, something which the chinese did back in the early 2000s.

Not democracy, government controlled economy. That is the reason we did not develop. When china became capitalist it DEVELOPED because of capitalism not authoritarian government.

Same happened with india. For all the talk of how india can never develop with should be content with it “hindu rate of growth” because that's how much a “diverse country can ever grow” it has grown and grown enough to be the fastest growing major economy for the last decade now.


Sure not as fast as china but should remember the way and time china grew in were wastly different from today. Their growth was assisted by the west Americans free handedly gave them production capabilities and technology (they had their own reasons for at the time and they sure as hell benefited from it) compared to that you'll find few or none that can match to it.


The only thing we should ensure going forward is to maintain stability and stable policies without absurd red tape. The economy would grow on it's own.

 

[netram]

Not democracy, government controlled economy. That is the reason we did not develop. When china became capitalist it DEVELOPED because of capitalism not authoritarian government.

Have you ever even stepped inside school ? or even a Library for that matter ?
What the hell do you think China is now ? a Liberal democracy ? Do you think China disbanded its Leninist state structure as soon as they "embraced capitalism",
Let me spell it out for you, there is a difference between economic systems and political systems.
China didnt become "capitalist", Land in China is still state owned, They have roughly 150k+ SOEs while we have far far less. China adopted capitalist policies while retaining socialist ownership where ever they can, which is the opposite of what we did, We basically followed the Russian shock therapy format, Look where the Russians are now, Their electronics industry is stuck in the late 20th century while the chinese have started to replicate the near entirety of western electronics industrial chain INSIDE their country with only a handful of technologies out of their reach. When it comes to industrial espionage, how do you think we built the atomic bomb ? End Justifies Means.

because that's how much a “diverse country can ever grow” it has grown and grown enough to be the fastest growing major economy for the last decade now.

that growth has been on the backs of service fetish. See this is why Indians need to work on our reading comprehension.
Industrial growth creates gdp growth, but GDP growth doesnt automatically create Industrial growth.
This is what happens when you get your history from Twitter threads, whatsapp and facebook, instead of actual well researched books.
To claim China developed because of 'capitalism' while ignoring the authoritarian state led industrial policy that forced it into existence is wild, its like looking at the sky and confidently claiming that Sun doesnt exist.
Capital didn't just 'arrive' in China, the CPC forcibly moved populations and suppressed labor activism(unlike in India, look up Datta Samant and the case of Uttam Nakhate) to create a factory floor for the world, the story of how they did that is brutal, precise and rather fascinating.

Also, the West didn't 'free handedly' give them anything.
Corporations chased cheap labor for profit and China played them by forcing IP transfers(btw we used to do this too, but the forced IP transfers were ego driven rather than strategic; look up the Coco Cola and IBM debacle) to build their own capabilities. It was never a gift, it was a trade-off that the West is only now realizing they lost.
How do you think SAIC, BAW, DongFeng, FAW and other State Owned Automobile manufacturers

came to be such dominant industrial groups ? Each of these enterprises where owned by provinciial govts(our equivalent of SPSUs) and all of them entered into multiple JVs with different foreign car makers(btw these SOEs were involved in mulitple ancilliary industries like machine tool manufacturing) and what people dont recognize is that chinese partners in these JVs where the ones providing funding for R&D, because these were SOEs the state was able to push its mandate through while In india, democratic cuckery means a govt cant formulate effective policy beyond two or three election cycles,and even if they manage to, the focus is on short term hand outs.
Lastly, thinking than an economy just 'grows on its own' if you remove red tape is pure fan fiction, You've been reading too much unproven liberal propaganda.

No major power has ever reached the top through passive 'stability',
it takes massive state investment in infrastructure, industry and R&D.
This 'hands-off' logic is exactly why we spent decades stuck in the very 'Hindu rate of growth' you’re misquoting, India was always a mixed economy not a "state controlled economy". Read a book on State Capitalism, industrial policy or just look at the case studies of late industrializing countries before the next post.
You've been hoodwinked into believing American liberal capitalist delusions, America has unparalled security and mulit decade history of shoring up capital, A rabbit shouldnt seek to mimic and elephant's turd.
You are just aping Nehruvian delusions of anglo liberalism, judicial overreach and democracy, which is why socialism failed in the first place in India.
Thats not even factoring in the educational priorities of the states in India and China. look at the pictures.
China produces socially useful Engineers, Doctors and Physical Scientists, while India produces socially and economically uselesss andholanist left liberal parasites that undermine industrial development. This is the legacy of the "supremely awesome
democracy"

The only thing we should ensure going forward is to maintain stability and stable policies without absurd red tape. The economy would grow on it's own.

I am sorry to say this but you know next to nothing about national industrial development let alone why Planning in India failed. You got the spirit, I suggest you spend some time studying how countries industrialized from scratch. Set aside economic ideology, focus on political ideology. The former flows out of the latter.

FYI China has a socialist market economy where SOEs(aka what we call PSUs) dominate the economy.
You having been reading too much Friedman, Friedmanites never built a country from scratch.

 

[atg]

Have you ever even stepped inside school ? or even a Library for that matter ?
What the hell do you think China is now ? a Liberal democracy ? Do you think China disbanded its Leninist state structure as soon as they "embraced capitalism",
Let me spell it out for you, there is a difference between economic systems and political systems.
China didnt become "capitalist", Land in China is still state owned, They have roughly 150k+ SOEs while we have far far less. China adopted capitalist policies while retaining socialist ownership where ever they can, which is the opposite of what we did, We basically followed the Russian shock therapy format, Look where the Russians are now, Their electronics industry is stuck in the late 20th century while the chinese have started to replicate the near entirety of western electronics industrial chain INSIDE their country with only a handful of technologies out of their reach. When it comes to industrial espionage, how do you think we built the atomic bomb ? End Justifies Means.

that growth has been on the backs of service fetish. See this is why Indians need to work on our reading comprehension.
Industrial growth creates gdp growth, but GDP growth doesnt automatically create Industrial growth.
This is what happens when you get your history from Twitter threads, whatsapp and facebook, instead of actual well researched books.
To claim China developed because of 'capitalism' while ignoring the authoritarian state led industrial policy that forced it into existence is wild, its like looking at the sky and confidently claiming that Sun doesnt exist.
Capital didn't just 'arrive' in China, the CPC forcibly moved populations and suppressed labor activism(unlike in India, look up Datta Samant and the case of Uttam Nakhate) to create a factory floor for the world, the story of how they did that is brutal, precise and rather fascinating.

Also, the West didn't 'free handedly' give them anything.
Corporations chased cheap labor for profit and China played them by forcing IP transfers(btw we used to do this too, but the forced IP transfers were ego driven rather than strategic; look up the Coco Cola and IBM debacle) to build their own capabilities. It was never a gift, it was a trade-off that the West is only now realizing they lost.
How do you think SAIC, BAW, DongFeng, FAW and other State Owned Automobile manufacturers came to be such dominant industrial groups ? Each of these enterprises where owned by provinciial govts(our equivalent of SPSUs) and all of them entered into multiple JVs with different foreign car makers(btw these SOEs were involved in mulitple ancilliary industries like machine tool manufacturing) and what people dont recognize is that chinese partners in these JVs where the ones providing funding for R&D, because these were SOEs the state was able to push its mandate through while In india, democratic cuckery means a govt cant formulate effective policy beyond two or three election cycles,and even if they manage to, the focus is on short term hand outs.
Lastly, thinking than an economy just 'grows on its own' if you remove red tape is pure fan fiction, You've been reading too much unproven liberal propaganda.
No major power has ever reached the top through passive 'stability',
it takes massive state investment in infrastructure, industry and R&D.
This 'hands-off' logic is exactly why we spent decades stuck in the very 'Hindu rate of growth' you’re misquoting, India was always a mixed economy not a "state controlled economy". Read a book on State Capitalism, industrial policy or just look at the case studies of late industrializing countries before the next post.
You've been hoodwinked into believing American liberal capitalist delusions, America has unparalled security and mulit decade history of shoring up capital, A rabbit shouldnt seek to mimic and elephant's turd.
You are just aping Nehruvian delusions of anglo liberalism, judicial overreach and democracy, which is why socialism failed in the first place in India.
Thats not even factoring in the educational priorities of the states in India and China. look at the pictures.
China produces socially useful Engineers, Doctors and Physical Scientists, while India produces socially and economically uselesss andholanist left liberal parasites that undermine industrial development. This is the legacy of the "supremely awesome
democracy"








I am sorry to say this but you know next to nothing about national industrial development let alone why Planning in India failed. You got the spirit, I suggest you spend some time studying how countries industrialized from scratch. Set aside economic ideology, focus on political ideology. The former flows out of the latter.

FYI China has a socialist market economy where SOEs(aka what we call PSUs) dominate the economy.
You having been reading too much Friedman, Friedmanites never built a country from scratch.

Seems like an uneducated reply.

You are incorrect/liar. I stand by my statement.
China developed BECAUSE of capitalism. The things you mentioned existed waaaay before it's reforms and to Many other countries of south east asia. But they only developed when they started adoption capilatilst policies. And they continue to even after transitioning into a democracy.


Your entire comment is riddled with arguing points(which i didn't make) and emotional retorts, you don't even get my references haha.

Only in india you'll find people more passionate for a ideology which is abandoned even in it's creator state and early champions.

And to write such a paragraph? Notebook entry on it? Appreciate you taking your time writing this but I can't argue so many damn points going in so many damn direction with no cohesion or sense (might not even be written in good faith)

Next time make clear points to express your views and keep it centred around the topic being discussed. 👍