Military expert predicts ineffectiveness of French APCs on Armenian terrain "Easy prey for Azerbaijan"

French armoured personnel carriers are good on open plains but will be ineffective in Armenia's mountainous conditions, military expert Hayk Nagapetyan opined in a conversation with Armenian media.

"These APCs, first of all, are designed to transport personnel and achieve advantage due to high speed on flat terrain and the ability to hit the enemy's moving vehicles under the condition of direct visibility," he said, Caliber.Az reports.

"But in the Armenian mountains, hills and gorges, these vehicles will be easy prey for the enemy. Moreover, these vehicles are poorly protected and from a distance of several kilometres, they can be destroyed by any anti-tank weapon. In our mountainous conditions, completely different types of weapons are effective," the expert believes.

"French APCs are only suitable for transporting prominent figures of the current government around Yerevan. At the same time, several hundred police and security personnel will be freed up. But seriously, the number one problem for Armenia is not the lack of armoured vehicles. For us, the super task is the defence of the sky. If we talk about priorities, it is enough to recall the 44-day war, in which the enemy had absolute superiority in the sky. Our main task should be to neutralise this advantage," Nagapetyan said.

He noted that the country's defence is a system. The system's problems should be solved comprehensively, all elements should see a solution. It is the protection of the sky over Armenia that he considers the most important element of defence.

"Okay, let's assume that these armoured vehicles have high cross-country capability. How many personnel can they transport and what combat missions can they fulfil? Air and missile defence systems, kamikaze drones, attack and reconnaissance drones as part of network-centric battle management systems - this is what we need in conditions when by and large, our skies are under enemy control," Nagapetyan believes.

In his opinion, Russia has the best weapons in the world for neutralising enemy air forces. In particular, Nahapetyan noted the Krasukha electronic warfare system and the Pantsir-S1 self-propelled anti-aircraft missile and cannon system in service with the Russian Armed Forces.

"The large number of tanks and other armoured vehicles of American, German and French production in Ukraine does not play a decisive role. The AFU cannot achieve a breakthrough, because even on long-range approaches, Russian drones are very effective in destroying manpower and armoured vehicles that cannot approach the defence line of the Russian Armed Forces. That is, this equipment does not even have time to reach the battlefield," the expert said.

According to Nagapetyan, the Ukrainian army is even better equipped than the Russian army. However, the sky belongs to Russia. If the state has superiority in the sky, it will not only win the battle, it will win the war. The expert also considers the example of Syria, where Russian planes predetermined the outcome of the war, as eloquent.

In his opinion, France has not armed Armenia yet. Everything was limited to signing a memorandum on sending several APCs. Nagapetyan believes that France is busy imitating activities. Usually, when armament is transferred to a warring country, it is not publicised. It is not customary to talk about it either before or during the war, as this information is a military secret. So, if France intends to arm Armenia, it should do it in secrecy, which is neither theoretically nor practically impossible, the expert is sure, taking into account the inevitability of information leakage with the transport communications we have.

"Do you think it will be easy to deliver weapons through Georgia? Remember that in 2020 Georgia closed the air and land border," he recalled.