RA ARMED FORCES REPLENISHED BY 10 MORE PLANES

Noyan Tapan News Agency, Armenia
Sept 26 2005

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 26, NOYAN TAPAN. “RA Armed Forces were replenished
by 10 more planes, which are completely ready for carrying out
military tasks. In this respect our fighting capacity increases,”
Artur Aghabekian, RA Deputy Minister of Defence, declared at the
briefing held at the Aviation Institute after Armenak Khanpertsian.

Answering the question, how much they paid for the planes, the Deputy
Minister said that he has no information about it. And in reply to the
question, from what country were they bought, Artur Aghabekian only
mentioned that “these planes are of Russian production.” To recap,
according to the information we have, the planes were to be bought
from Slovakia.

In reply to the question about the depreciation of the military
equipment, the Deputy Defence Minister emphasized that when military
equipment is depreciated it is immediately written off. According
to A.Aghabekian, the whole military equipment existing in Armenia or
bought by it is battle-worthy or is prepared for action by means of
additional expenditures. “On the whole, in the respect of validity term
our equipment is in a very good condition,” Deputy Defence Minister
emphasized. According to A.Aghabekian, “the program of development
of RA Armed Forces envisages constant replenishment of both Armed
Forces staff and armament. And this is an everyday problem in the
Armed Forces.”