Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense Industry has completed production of a new sniper rifle.

The sniper rifle called ‘Vashag’ has two calibers of 7.62 and 8.6 millimeters. The range of fire for is 1,000 meters, and 1,500 meters, respectively.

The rifle will be put on sale soon.

Recently the country hosted ADEX 2016, bringing together 216 companies from 34 countries, as well as 25 official delegations from 19 states.

The Azerbaijani pavilion at the exhibition presented over 260 kinds of defense products and special-purpose weapons and ammunition, including a high-explosive air bomb QFAB-100SAB, armored vehicle Gurza, 14.5 mm-caliber NST sniper rifle, sniper machine gun ‘Shimshek’ and many others.

Azerbaijan, which is in war with neighboring Armenia over the latter's territorial claims during more than 20 years, keeps in focus the armament, working closely with leading companies and firms in various fields of military industry.

The country’s military budget for 2016 is about $1.466 billion, which exceeds the overall state budget of occupant Armenia by more than $1 billion.

Azerbaijan leaves behind many CIS and regional countries to take its place among the first 70 strongest militaries of the world, according to the U.S.-based Global Firepower survey center.

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

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