Azerbaijan to import Russian combat aircraft
By Amina Nazarli
Russia is preparing to export some trainer aircrafts "Yak-130" (NATO reporting name: Mitten) to Azerbaijan, "Irkut" aircraft manufacturer reported.
Last year, Azerbaijani military pilots flew on the aircrafts and closely got acquainted with its technical and tactical indicators.
"Some procedures are being implemented. We think that Azerbaijan will be one of the users of Yak-130 soon," the representative of the company noted.
But he did not release the exact number of aircrafts.
The double combat trainer aircraft Yak-130 is designed for training pilots of combat aircraft "4 +++" and "5"th generations. Its armament consists of guided and unguided missiles.
Currently, these aircrafts are being used by armies of Russia, Belarus and Algeria.
Azerbaijan became the 19th country importing Russia's major conventional weapons over the period 2009-2013. This comes as in 2004-2008, Azerbaijan was the 49th country in this list.
Over the past years, Azerbaijan increased its arm import almost by four times or 378 percent.
Azerbaijan imports major conventional weapons from seven countries - Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Israel, Turkey, South Africa and the United States.
In a nutshell, Azerbaijan purchased a total of 187 tanks, 32 helicopters, 27 aircraft, two missile complex "S-300" and about 100 armored personnel carriers from 2009 to 2013.
By 2013, the number of armed forces stood at 66,950 out of them 56,850 were land forces, 2,200 maritime forces and 7,900 air forces.