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Qabil Ashirov

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Ukrainian conflict discloses the potential of the Azerbaijani Army because the it owns most of the same weapons or much better alternatives that are used in this war. Especially recent happenings have drawn much of attention of some experts on weapons in the country.

According to some observations, suffering a shortage of sophisticated missiles, the Russian Army has started to use guided aviation bombs. These types of bombs have small wings, tail surfaces, and a satellite control system allowing a pilot to drop the bombs into the battle zone from a great distance. The range of a Russian-made guided bomb is 50 km and the weight is 1.5 tonnes. They are much cheaper compared to missiles, and the air defense systems lack power to catch them. Even Ukrainian government asks for assistance from its allies because they cannot cope with them.

In parallel with recent events in Ukraine, the Azerbaijani defense ministry demonstrated its guided bombs in "Anatolian Eagle 2023". Unbeknownst to many, Azerbaijan manufactures guided bombs called QFAB10-SAB, QFAB-25-SAB, QFAB-50-ISAB, GFAB-100-SAB, QFAB-250-LG, QFAB-250-KAB, QFAB-250-SAB, FAB-50-KAB, FAB-75-KAB. Azerbaijan has been producing these bombs for several years and the weight of these bombs ranges from 50 kg to 500 kg, and the fire ranges from 10 km to 100 km.

In a comment on the issue for Azernews, the Military Expert Ramil Mammadli noted that a number of projects were implemented in the scientific research institutions of the Ministry of Defense Industry of Azerbaijan in the direction of the production of guided bombs. He underscored that except GPS system, all parts of the bomb are produced in the country.

“We witnessed the production of different types of guided bombs. Of course, the entire system here was implemented by Azerbaijani engineers, only the GPS control system was implemented by the Turkish company Aselsan. It is integrated into Su25 aircraft,” the expert emphasized.

According to the military expert, Azerbaijan has diversified strong UAV and UCAVs, and helicopter fleets. Speaking about Azerbaijan's aircrafts, Ramil Mammadli said that the main aircrafts in the Azerbaijani Air Forces are MIG 29, SU 25, and Aermacchi M-346 train aircraft that have been purchased from Italy recently. These bombs can be deployed from different platforms including aircrafts, helicopters and UAVs.

“In general, this type of air bombs are mainly integrated in SU 25 and 24 combat aircraft, so they are not used so much in other combat aviation vehicles. Rather, they are aviation bombs intended for bombers. As the Aermacchi M-346 is a combat trainer, it cannot carry heavy loads. Therefore, not all guided bombs can be integrated into this aircraft. However, for example, due to its low weight, the QFAB-10-SAB, QFAB-25-SAB and QFAB-50-SAB can be integrated into an Aermacchi aircraft,” Mammadli said.

However, they have several advantages over other guided bombs, such as improved accuracy and greater control over the target. Besides that, compared with the Russian-made guided bombs, the fire range of Azerbaijani bombs is twice more which makes them more attractive and a viable choice in modern warfare.

They are effective weapons against a variety of different targets, ranging from enemy ground forces, to military bases and other strategic locations. From economical point of view, it opens a great horizon in front of Azerbaijan. Moreover, there are dozens of countries armed with Soviet (currently) aviation. Previously, Russia and Ukraine were the main suppliers of these countries in terms of munitions. Nowadays, both of these countries are engaged in a war that drains their military resources. The situation enables Azerbaijan to deplete the gaps worth of million dollars that emerged as a result of the Ukrainian conflict. In other words, these newly-developed bombs are a major boost for Azerbaijan's military capabilities.

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