Azerbaijan condemns Armenian CAESAR contract

French Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu (right) hands a model of a CAESAR to Armenian Minister of Defence Suren Papikyan. (Ministère des Armées)

The Armenian CAESAR wheeled self-propelled howitzer order announced on 18 June is “further evidence of France's provocative activities in the South Caucasus”, Azerbaijan's Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in a statement on the same day.

Noting that the French government said last year it would only supply defensive weaponry to Armenia, the MoD said the contract to supply howitzers demonstrated “the hypocrisy of the French leadership”. It added that French arms supplies would encourage the “revanchist” Armenian leadership along the “path to a new war”.

Earlier that day, French Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu announced that a contract covering Armenia's acquisition of an unspecified number of CAESARs had been signed.

While he did not reveal how many howitzers Armenia would receive or the value of the contract, Lecornu released photographs showing him handing a model of the original CAESAR to Armenian Minister of Defence Suren Papikyan. KNDS unveiled the better-protected CAESAR MkII version at the Eurosatory 2024 defence exhibition held in Paris at the same time.

While Armenia did not announce the contract signing, Papikyan said on 17 June that a military technical co-operation agreement had been signed with KNDS France (formerly Nexter) – the company that makes the CAESAR – during his visit to Paris, indicating Armenia will receive new guns rather than second-hand French ones.

KNDS said during Eurosatory 2024 that it has tripled its production of the CAESAR to six a month to meet demand, which includes orders for 78 for Ukraine and 109 more for France.