If Armenia enters a defence pact with India to acquire Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jets to counter the threat posed by Azerbaijan's JF-17C Block III Thunders, New Delhi will have a surprise player to thank for it — Pakistan!
According to a report, Yerevan originally wanted to enter a deal with France for Rafale jets, but Islamabad’s propaganda about having given a difficult time to IAF’s Rafales during ‘Operation Sindoor’ reportedly forced them to look for alternatives. Simply put, an agenda pushed on social media to belittle India and the IAF ended up being a kick in the gut for France, while opening the doors to a multi-million (if not billion)-dollar deal for India.
IAF Rafales and Pak trolls
Following the clashes in May between India and Pakistan, the Soufan Center think tank said that the internet had been “flooded with disinformation, false claims, and manipulated photos and videos.” Pakistan’s military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif claimed the Pakistan air force had shot down five Indian attack aircraft: three Dassault Aviation-made Rafales, a Russian-made SU-30MKI, and a Russian-made MiG-29. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif repeated the claim, saying the Pakistan Air Force had the opportunity to shoot down 10 Indian planes, but exercised restraint and downed only the five that had fired on Pakistani targets.
Later, in an interview with Bloomberg on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, India’s Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan admitted for the first time that an unspecified number of its fighter jets were downed. "What I can say is that on May 7, in the initial stages, there were losses... What was important is why these losses occurred and what we will do after that," Reuters, too, later quoted him as saying. However, India's armed forces to date categorically deny having lost four Rafales to the Pakistani counter-offensive.
Armed by US President Donald Trump’s claim that “seven brand new" planes were shot down during the India-Pakistan conflict, pro-Islamabad trolls widely claimed that India’s Rafales were downed by their superior air force during the conflict. A report by Malaysia-based Defence Security Asia claimed that Armenia began to wonder about the value of the French fighter jets — already expensive — wondering what point there was in buying them if they were underperforming. Thus, they decided to give priority to the Indo-Russian Sukhoi Su-30MKIs instead.
“Dassault Aviation has offered the Rafale fighter to Armenia; however, concerns over cost and its reported underperformance during a recent India-Pakistan air clash may have diminished Yerevan’s enthusiasm for the French-made aircraft,” the Defence Security Asia report said.
Why Armenia wants Indian firepower
Azerbaijan, with whom Armenia has fought two full-scale wars — along with several smaller clashes and skirmishes — over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, has bought 40 JF-17C Block III Thunders from Pakistan. The JF-17Cs are developed jointly by the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) and the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) from China. Yerevan can’t let the balance of military power tilt against it and are reportedly on the search to find the best option to counter the arrival of the fourth-gen Sino-Pak jets in Baku.
While Pakistan is a sworn ally of Azerbaijan, Armenia has stepped up its relations with New Delhi, already having bought the Akash-1S system last year.