Armenian Army

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Light armor in the Armenian army is complemented with several variants which serve in both ground attack and air defense roles. Above, BRDM-2s on parade in the city's main square.

The army possesses a battery of BM-21 GRAD multiple rocket launcher units.

An Armenian BTR-70 on parade in the main square in Yerevan during the 15^th anniversary of the country's independence day celebrations on September 21, 2006.

The Armenian Army is the largest branch of the Armenian military and is comprised of the ground forces responsible for the country's land-based operations. It was established in conjunction with the other components of Armenia's military on January 28, 1992, several months after the republic declared its independence from the Soviet Union. The army's first head was the former deputy of the Soviet chief of staff, Norat Ter-Grigoryants.

1 History
2 Organization
3 Vehicle inventory
4 External links
5 References

[edit] History

Ter-Grigoryants and other civilian officials in the Armenian Ministry of Defense including Vazgen Manukyan and Vazgen Sargsyan established the army to be a "small, well-balanced, combat-ready defense force."^[1] Most of the Armenian army's staff officers were members of the former Soviet military. Almost immediately after its independence, Armenia was embroiled in the Nagorno-Karabakh War with neighboring Azerbaijan. Intending to establish a force of 30,000 men, the army's standing force increased to 50,000 by early 1994. During the war, the military remained on high alert and bolstered defenses in the region of Zangezur, opposite of the western Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan. Purported artillery bombardment in May 1992 from the region led to skirmishes between the two sides including the Armenian army's incursion into several of the villages.

In the autumn of 2004, the Armenian government approved to dispatch a 46-man contingent from the army consisting of sappers and engineers under Polish command as part of the Multinational force in Iraq. Additionally, a platoon-sized unit was deployed to Kosovo as part of the Greek peacekeeping force.

[edit] Organization

[edit] Operational Forces

[edit] Academies

Monte Melkonian Military Academy in Martuni, Nagorno-Karabakh
Vazgen Sargsyan Military Academy

[edit] General Staff

Name	Rank	Notes
Gurgen Daribaltayan	Colonel-General	Deputy head of Chief of Staff and special military adviser to current president, Robert Kocharyan
Mikhail Haroutyounyan	Colonel-General
Gory Hakopyan	Lieutenant-General
Manuel Grikoryan	Lieutenant-General	Decorated as "Hero of Artsakh"
Aghik Myurzabekyan	Lieutenant-General
Arthur Aghabekyan	Lieutenant-General
Yuri Khachaturov	Lieutenant-General
Gurgen Melkonyan	Lieutenant-General
Roland Kereshyan	Lieutenant-General