Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijan-made ammunition, modern small arms and artillery weapons, unmanned aerial vehicles, armored vehicles and other defense products are exported to more than ten countries, Azerbaijan’s Defense Industry Minister Yavar Jamalov said on April 27.

He made the remark at the Ministry’s board meeting dedicated to the results of the first quarter of 2018.

The meeting noted that the volume of the exported products has doubled in comparison with the same period last year. As many as 89 percent of the total output are defense and special-purpose products, while 11 percent are of non-military nature.

The assortment of defense products is brought to 1,200. This year it is planned to conduct design and experimental work on 127 products at the enterprises of the Ministry. The products to be developed include special-purpose machine guns, automatic weapons of various calibers, barrels for large-caliber machine guns, automatic grenade launcher systems, optical sights for sniper rifles and other weapons.

It was also noted during the meeting that the Defense Industry Ministry will participate in the Eurosatory-2018 international exhibition in France this June. Azerbaijan, to participate there for the first time, will display 268 defense products, as well as several new types of products.

The meeting further discussed the work carried out in connection with the ADEX-2018 international defense exhibition, which will be held in Baku in September this year.

Azerbaijan leaves behind many CIS and regional countries to take its place among the first 53 strongest armies of the world, according to the U.S.-based Global Firepower survey center. The country, which is in war with neighboring Armenia over the latter's groundless territorial claims during more than 20 years, keeps in focus the armament. While creating its own armament, Azerbaijan works closely with leading companies and firms in various fields of military industry.

The Azerbaijan-made products include such weapons as mortars of various caliber and their ammunition, 5.45-millimeter machine guns, 7.62-mm general-purpose machine guns, sniper rifles of special purpose, Matador and Marauder armored personnel carriers. Moreover, Azerbaijani military factories produce 30-mm automatic grenade launcher complex, sight for ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft installation, ammo of various calibers, PG-7V grenade launchers, unmanned aerial vehicles, aerial bombs for a training exercise and many other weapons.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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