Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has criticized the performance of his country's
Russian-made Iskander-E ballistic missiles during the conflict with Azerbaijan last year.
These have massive repercussions. Russian military equipment export is a major
source of revenue for the nation and casting of aspersions on Iskander-E in a massive PR
disaster.
This has given rise to the murmurs that many other Russian systems have significant flaws
but these have not got into the public domain.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes if the Russian Iskander E missile failed in Armenia
and Azerbaijan conflict? Let's get started.
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Armenia and Azerbaijan were involved in bitter clash.
The conflict is essentially an ethnic and territorial one over the disputed region of
Nagorno-Karabakh.
It is inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians, while the seven surrounding districts were
inhabited mostly by Azerbaijanis until their expulsion during the Nagorno-Karabakh War.
Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but mostly governed
by the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh (formerly named Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR)) since
the war.
Azerbaijan has been successful in retaking territory that belonged to it under international
law but had been de facto controlled by Armenia. The fighting came to an end in November when
both sides agreed to sign a Russian-brokered peace deal.
It is to be noted here that Russia has strong ties with Armenia and has been selling weapons
which include Iskander E.
The 9K720 Iskander a mobile short-range ballistic missile system produced and deployed by the
Russian military. The missile systems are replacing obsolete OTR-21 Tochka systems.
The Iskander has several different conventional warheads, including a cluster munitions warhead,
a fuel-air explosive enhanced-blast warhead, a high explosive-fragmentation warhead, an
earth penetrator for bunker busting and an electromagnetic pulse device for anti-radar
missions.
The missile system also has many variants. "E" variant is meant for Export.
Armenia became the first foreign country to operate the system.
It introduced the Iskander mobile missile complex to the public during a military
parade dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Armenia's independence in 2016.
Iskander-E has a maximum range up to 280 km or 174 miles, to comply with Missile Technology
Control Regime restrictions for export and is fitted with a simplified inertial guidance
system. It flies on a flattened trajectory under 50 km or 31 miles altitude, allowing
aerodynamic steering using tail fins, permitting a less predictable flight path and accurate
delivery.
Former President Serzh Sargsyan criticized the Pashinyan government by asking why Russian-made
Iskander short-range missiles were not fired on the third or fourth day of the war.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in an interview that the Iskander-Es had been
used, but that they had been ineffective, claiming that the warheads in the majority
of the missiles fired failed to explode as intended, if at all.
When asked why the Iskander missile did not explode - or why it exploded only by 10 percent
- Pashinyan responded by arguing that the Russian missiles were probably outdated.
He said, “Maybe it was a weapon of the 80s?” Former Minister of Defence Seyran Ohanyan
refuted this and said the missiles were obtained towards the end of his tenure in 2015.
Questions over the effectiveness of the Iskander missile have drawn strong criticism from the
Russians.
Several senior members of Russia’s Duma, the lower house of parliament, condemned Pashinyan.
Viktor Zavarzin, the deputy chairman of a State Duma committee on defense and security,
said: “The Iskander is a highly precise weapon, which has repeatedly been proved during
military exercises.”
Zavarzin defines Pashinyan’s remarks about the missile as a “complete lie.”
Russian military expert Viktor Murakhovsky accused Pashinyan, asking him “where his
fantasies have come from," over his comments on the Iskander missile.
Murakhovsky claimed, "The Iskanders were not used during the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh
and they made no launches”
Viewers may note that video footage available on social media showed Armenia firing Iskander
ballistic missiles at Azerbaijan in November.
Russian MOD has even published videos to demonstrate the effectiveness of Iskander system.
One of such videos inadvertently seems to indicate that Russia was targeting hospitals
in Syria as early as 2016.
As per most ground reports, it is clear that the Iskander missiles were used by Armenia.
It also is to be noted that the war resulted in the loss of territory as well as the face
for Armenia, so there is no reason to believe that they held themselves back from the Iskander
missile.
This is not the first time Russian weapons systems have been found to be wanting when
used in actual conflict.
Earlier, a similar thing happened with Pantsir S1 is a short-range self-propelled air defense
system that is meant to protect military/industrial/administrative installations against aircraft, helicopters,
precision munitions, cruise missiles, and UAVs.
Pantsir-S1 was provided by Russia to the Assad regime in Syria.
In May 2018, Israeli Defense Forces released a video showing the destruction of a Syrian
Pantsir-S1. This came as a major humiliation for the Russian military.
At that time also Russian experts gave many excuses but the fact remains attempts are
being made to develop a new advanced version, called the Pantsir-SM, with upgraded electronics,
radar, and new missiles to replace Pantsir-S1. Also, Russia is trying to sell the Pantsir-S1
abroad at a low price.
As per the indications, it can be concluded it is highly likely that there is something
wrong with the Russian-made Iskander missile.