In Part 1, we looked at some of the Azerbaijani-made small arms showcased at the ADEX 2022 exhibition in Baku. In Part 2, we’ll look at more unique and lesser known products of the Azerbaijan defense industry – large caliber sniper rifles and machine guns. [Read More…]
The ongoing conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia brought a lot of attention to the military-industrial complex of Azerbaijan. And while many of their heavy weapon systems were procured abroad, when it comes to small arms, Azerbaijan demonstrates a surprising [Read More…]
The outbreak of hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan on the 27 September is not completely surprising; both countries have fought several short and brutal campaigns against one another since the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, this surge of violence looks [Read More…]
At this year’s 100th Anniversary of the Azeri Army Parade in Baku, Azerbaijan we were able to get a glimpse of some of the recent developments within the Azeri Armed Forces while on parade. In terms of small arms the most significant observation is the recent [Read More…]
21st Century Asian Arms Race spotted an image shared on the website of the Office of the Azeri President that is showing a rifle of Belarusian origins in a unit armory locker of the Azeri Armed Forces. The rifle in question was previously reported on by TFB in [Read More…]
Recent media shared on a pro-Azeri Armed Forces group called Polygon Azerbaijan has provided details on an anti-material rifle that has been in development by the Azeri Ministry of Defense Industry since at least 2009. In 2009 the Azerbaijan Minister of Defense [Read More…]
ADEX is the Azerbaijan International Defense Exhibition held in the capitol of Baku, Azerbaijan. The Azeris began work on a 14.5mm and 12.7mm anti-material rifle back in 2008 and having it enter service in 2009. This was the Istigal 14.5 and 12.7mm semi-automatic [Read More…]
At the recent IDEF Istanbul exhibition held this past May, Azerbaijan had some interesting developments of various small arms on display. Interestingly there wasn’t any demonstration of their service rifle, the Tavor (similarly, it appears most of the military [Read More…]
In a badly translated press release, the Azerbaijan’s Minister of Defense Industry says the country is not abandoning the Azerbaijan Khazri AK… “Azerbaijan doesn’t intend to abandon the usage of AK-74 automatic submachine gun and plans to produce [Read More…]
Azerbaijan is going to replace their AK inventory with locally produced IMI Tavor rifles. This is part of a $1.6 billion arms deal with Israel, which includes the purchase of a fleet of Israeli-manufactured drones. About six months ago the Azerbaijan Ministry of Defense [Read More…]
The Azerbaijan Ministry of Defense Industry have licensed the AK-74M design from Russian AK-maker Izhmash and will be producing it domestically. The rifle will be called the “Khazri Assault Rifle”. It sounds like it will feature accessory rails for lights, [Read More…]
The Azerbaijani government are now manufacturing a .50 BMG version of their monster semi-automatic 14.5mm IST-14.5 “Istiglal” rifle. The IST-12.7 was on display for the first time at the Africa Aerospace & Defense expo 2010. The IST-12.7 magazine holds [Read More…]
The Azerbaijan Ministry of Defence Industry has recently developed a new anti-material sniper rifle called the “Istiglal” IST-14.5. These photos are from the Ministry’s website: The rifle was on display at the IDEF ’09 arms show in Turkey a [Read More…]