Azerbaijani military products used in April clashes, minister says
By Rashid Shirinov
The military output produced in Azerbaijan played an important role in the April battles provoked by Armenia, said Azerbaijan's Defense Industry Minister Yavar Jamalov.
He made the statement at the Cabinet meeting on the Results of Socio-economic Development in the First Half of 2016 and the Upcoming Challenges chaired by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on July 10.
Jamalov mentioned a number of reforms carried out in the army building in terms of strengthening the logistics base of the Armed Forces.
“Today, the Azerbaijani army is among the strongest ones -- that was proved by the April fights. Thus, in April of this year, in reply to the provocations of Armenian army, our Armed Forces have struck hard blows to the army of the occupant-country in the frontline, and a number of settlements and important heights were liberated. I would like to mention, that a number of local defense products were widely used during the fighting,” the minister claimed.
They were anti-tank grenade launchers, mortars, sniper rifles, universal machine guns, including АК74М assault rifles and ammunition of different caliber. Moreover, a number of modern unmanned aerial vehicles produced in Azerbaijan have been used for accurate detection and destruction of the enemy targets.
On the night of April 2, 2016, all the frontier positions of Azerbaijan were subjected to heavy fire from the Armenian side, which used large-caliber weapons, mortars and grenade launchers. The armed clashes resulted in deaths and injuries among the Azerbaijani civilians. Azerbaijan had to respond with a counter-attack, which led to liberation of several strategic heights and settlements.
This year, the Ministry of Defense Industry is implementing intensive work on creating new types of defense products. The main directions are designing educational and combat aviation bombs, systems of defense of special-significance facilities, as well as missiles of medium and long range.
Seven new-established enterprises will produce Revolver grenade launcher and its ammunition, fire sets for RРG-7V2 manual anti-tank grenade launcher, M-6 & M-12 mine fuzes, big- and small-caliber automatic guns, shells for tank guns.
Moreover, the Ministry will develop a prototype of the national armored vehicle, namely, Ildirim and Gasirgha vehicles will be introduced at the ADEX-2016 Second International Defense Exhibition. The exhibition, taking place in Baku on September 27-30, 2016, has already drawn international attention -- the Ministry got orders from more than 200 companies of 38 countries.
Jamalov noted that, to date, the Ministry of Defense Industry has successfully met its objectives: “In 2016, in accordance with the orders of the Defense Ministry and other power structures, the production, repair and disposal of defense products in the amount of 192.2 million manats ($123 million) were planned. In this field, intensive work is undertaken and the products are provided to customers.”
Overall, for the six months of 2016, the Ministry of Defense Industry completed the forecast GDP on 101.7 percent. The figure exceeds the data of the same period of 2015 by 5.1 percent, the Minister informed.
Meanwhile, the Ministry also expanded production of civil products: prototypes of Dalma deep-water pumps for artesian wells were developed. The forecast GDP on civil production was over-fulfilled as well – 108.8 percent for the half-year.
Yavar Jamalov also spoke about the export potential of the national military products: “The enterprises of the Ministry have been announced the winners of various tenders in the international markets. In turn, this indicates compliance of the products with international quality standards.” He also mentioned the DSA-2016 exhibition in Malaysia, April 18-21, where the enterprises of the Ministry introduced a range of their new products.
As a result, contracts for the export of various defense products were signed, and their implementation initiated. The products consist of different ammunition, modern weapons, sniper rifles, drones, etc. To date, The Ministry of Defense Industry has signed contracts of $106 million total in value with countries of Europe, Americas, Asia and Africa. “In order to expand our export opportunities in the years to come, measures on finding new markets will be taken,” Jamalov assured.