Armenia, one of the smallest republics of the former Soviet Union, inherited from it a strong military industry, which produced equipment for MIG, Sukhoi, rocket guidance equipment, etc. The Karabakh conflict and Spitak earthquake brought the Armenian economy down to a level worse than any other FSU country.

However, Armenian military oriented electronics equipment plants still maintained some capacity of R&D and production. This became very attractive to Teheran which badly needs soft and hardware in this field. Only recently did the US try to stop the further development of the already rooted cooperation between Iran and its Christian neighbors. Such efforts could bear better fruits if done as a part of measures of tight export control from Russia as the main source of proliferation.