Turkish Premier Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and National Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul visited Azerbaijani stand where they got closely acquainted with the products showcased. During the Exhibition Minister Yaver Jamalov met several Turkish and foreign officials and held negotiations on establishing bilateral cooperation. Minister also joined all the official events organized within the Exhibition. Defense Minister Safar Abiyev and Jandarmery Commander Zakir Hasanov also participated in the Exhibition.

Sharp shooting sniper rifle “Istiglal”, various combat ammunition for shooting weapons, artillery shells and optic devices were exhibited in the stand and attracted a great interest.

IST-14.5 Anti-Material Rifle (“Istiglal”) became the most interesting product. Despite its heavy weight 20 kg, the rifle can be used as a machine-gun. It has different optical shooting-mark with a range of 3000 m and can be used comfortably at a temperature of -50…+50 C. It is fast to water, mud, snow, and dust. The rifle can be shared to two parts and carried in the bag.

Azerbaijan exhibited at IDEF its other defense goods, including HE Mortar Bomb of 120 mm caliber, mufflers for machine-guns and other small arms, Seismic Mine Fuze-5 remote automatic detonator, which is able to detonate 10 bombs in 250 m distance.

Azerbaijan also demonstrated mono- and multilayer electronic printed-circuit boards, armored personnel carriers “Matador” and “Maradeur” produced jointly with Paramount Group, South Africa. The vehicle assembled at the Plant under the agreement with “Paramount Group” Company of South Africa meets all global standards due to its technical specifications. Azerbaijan is the sole producer of the armored vehicles within the Commonwealth area. These are vehicles with the highest ballistic and mine-protection (as standard) currently available on the world market, specifically developed for applications in the peacekeeping, defence and policing environments. They have been designed to be easily customized for a wide range of applications. They are the world’s only armoured vehicles in the 15-ton weight class with STANAG level III ballistic protection for the crew, as standard.

The “Matador” had a payload capacity of 4500 kg and can carried 14 full equipped soldiers. “Matador” can climb the slope of 60 degrees with its 6.57 meters long and 2.47 meters wide hull. The Ministry of Defence Industry of the Azerbaijan Republic (MODIAR) has placed an initial order for 25 Marauder and 25 Matador MPVs, with assembly already underway at a new facility in the country. The first batch of vehicles is scheduled for completion before the end of the year.