Indian Weapons Secrets In Enemy Hands? Armenia Arrests Captain For Trading Details Of Made-In-India Radar With Foreign Intelligence

The Armenian authorities have arrested a Captain rank officer in its army, for selling top-secret information about Swathi Radar to a rival spy agency, for just a mobile phone and some money, reported NewsAM.

India has exported four Swathi Weapons Locating Radar (WLR) to Armenia in March 2020 at a cost of $40 million. The sale was the first export success of the Swathi WLR.

It is reported that a Captain of the Armenian army sold top-secret information about the radar to a rival intelligence agency. 

The captain was recruited by the rival agency in early 2021 and passed information around April-May 2021, in exchange for a mobile phone and monetary payment.

Since the export of the radar, India-Armenia relations have steadily improved, especially in the context of the Ngorno-Karabakh conflict where it is reported, Swathi WLR performed admirably against Azerbaijan, which has been supported by Turkey and Pakistan. 

Pakistan has been supplying weapons to Azerbaijan for quite a while and has supported Azerbaijan in its quest of forcefully wresting back control of Ngorno-Karabakh from Armenia. In a quid-pro-quo, Azerbaijan supports Pakistan's stand on Kashmir, as well. Turkey too is in the fray and supports Pakistan's stand on Kashmir.

Turkey, a close ally of Pakistan which supports its stand on Kashmir, also backs Azerbaijan in its ongoing conflict with Armenia and is known to have supplied UAVs and weapons to the country, the most notable of which is the Bayraktar TB2 drone.

India, on the other hand, supports Armenia and has asked Azerbaijan, without naming the country, to “pull back forces and cease any further provocations”.

The defence relationship between India and Armenia has expanded significantly since the export of radars. Just last year, Armenia signed a deal to buy weapons worth Rs 2,000 crore from India.

The deal included the Pinaka Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher (the first export of this type) and its ammunition, the Konkurs-M anti-tank missile among other weapon systems.

In another recent deal worth $155 million, Armenia bought Kalyani Group-built truck-mounted 155mm/39 caliber self-propelled howitzer.