On 17 December the staff of the Ministry, celebrating the 10th anniversary of  foundation of the Ministry of Defence Industry and their professional holiday, firstly  visited Alley of Honor paying tributes respectively to the National Leader Heydar Aliyev and laid a wreath in front of the Memorial. Memory of the outstanding academician Zarifa Khanum Aliyeva, scientist-ophthalmologist has also been commemorated and bunches of flowers were put on the memorial grave. Graves of heroic sons of Azerbaijan fallen in the way of independence and territorial integrity of their motherland were also attended in the Alley of Marthyrs and a wreath was laid in front of  the Memorial of the “Eternal Flame”. The Ministry’s staff also attended National Leader Heydar Aliyev’s memorial bust erected in the yard of “Radiogurashdırma” Plant.

After the formal part a ceremonial event has been opened, starting from the national anthem of Azerbaijan. 

Opening the ceremony, minister Yaver Jamalov informed that on the eve of the  professional holiday of the employees of the Ministry of Defence Industry the Republic President Ilham Aliyev signed Orders on awarding a group the Ministry’s employees with honorary names “Honored Engineer” and medals “Terregy” (“Progress”) and “For the distinguishing in the State Service”. With this regard, the minister expressed gratitude to the President Ilham Aliyev on behalf of the staff. 

Yavar Jamalov informed that the old 2015 was eventful for the country’s life. He also noted that this year our country hosted many international events - the 1st European Games “Baku-2015”, exhibitions, conferences and forums covering different spheres. Organization of such significant events in Azerbaijan will make our country more popular in the region and in the world. 

Minister noted, that in spite of the fact that the whole world has been  experiencing economic and financial crisis over the past years, this recession couldn’t affect economic development of Azerbaijan. He stressed that as a consequence of the thoughtful and purposeful policy followed under the leadership of the Head of State Ilham Aliyev the economy of Azerbaijan remained stable to the recession and has been successfully developing. 

Speaking about the achievements reached by the Ministry of Defence Industry during the ten-year activity he noted that over the past years the ministry’s enterprises manufactured and supplied to the National Armed Forces different types of modern small arms, ammunition, engineering means and military equipment.

As a result of the work done hundreds types of weaponry have been manufactured and supplied to the customers for adoption in the army.

The R&D were in progress on 81 topics and 143 stages in accordance with the production plan for this year. By today development works on 11 products have been fully completed.  

In 2015 were assimilated and put into serial production the night vision devices, prismatic binoculars with built in compass, mortar bombs, grenade launcher projectiles and different types of mine fuses. The development works are in progress on manufacture of special NATO standard products - sniper rifle ”Yalquzaq” (Desert wolf), automatic gun, assault   machine gun and etc.

During the ministry’s activity manufacture of more than 1000 names of defence products and their spare parts have been assimilated. These are: the universal and tank machine guns, antitank hand grenade launchers, mortars of different calibers and their ammunition, Unmanned Areal  Vehicles (UAVs), mine protected armored vehicles, upgraded Armored Personnel Carriers (APC), Combat Reconnaissance Petrol Vehicles (CRPV), etc.

In 2015 an estimated total volume of the supplied to the customers defence products raised by 210 times as compared to 2006. The share of defence and special products encreased by 47 persent as compared to 2006 and came to 86 percent of the total production volume.

Over the passed time the ministry’s enterprises assimilated production of more than 450 names of civilian and dual purpose products and are carring out works on development and assimilation of new types of civilian products. As result of the carried out activities the production volume of civilian products is growing from year to year. In 2015 the production volume of civilian products raised by 2,9 times as compared to 2006. This year the civilian production met the forecast by 102,5%. Thus, production of gas masks, 12 cal. hunting rifles and their ammunition, accumulator batteries and plastic thermoses of different volume, camouflage nets, DVB-T decoders, multilayer  PCB (printed circuit boards), plastic containers, parquet, suits of furniture, tractor chains, and other products was  assimilated. 

Since 2009 the defense products developed and produced in the Ministry’s facilities have been showcased at 15 International Defense Industry Exhibitions and attracted great attention.

Products of the Ministry of Defence Industry demonstrated this year at IDEF-2015 exhibition in May in Turkey attracted great attention as it was at the other events. The Ministry of Defence Industry joined this biennial event for the 4th time. 

The Ministry of Defence Industry, debuting as an exhibitor at the International Exhibition IDEF-2009, representing 27 names of defence products, joined the “IDEF-2015” with 184 names. The Ministry showcased different types of small arms, close combat means, artillery weapons, armored vehicles, aircraft bombs of different caliber, UAVs, small arms ammunition of different types, ammunition for small caliber pistols, optic devices, etc.  

At present the Ministry of Defence Industry is working on the arrangements for the II International Defence Exhibition “ADEX-2016” to be held in Baku in 2016. It was reported that more than 100 foreign companies have been registered for participation in the event.

Defense products manufactured at the Ministry’s enterprises along with the procurement of the National Army are being exported.

Within the scope of the military-technical cooperation meetings are being  held at the Ministry of Defence Industry with the delegation heads of the leading companies of some countries with discussions of the current state and establishment of the new spheres of cooperation. 

Today the Ministry of Defence Industry closely cooperates with the world leading organizations and companies in different spheres. As a result of the growing interest in the products showcased at the international exhibitions the number of organizations cooperating with the Ministry of Defence Industry is increasing.

Over the passed time the activities on development of new types of defence products have been carried out at the Research Institute of the Ministry and at the National Aerospace Agency. The R&D on 17 topics at the Research Institute and on 12 topics at the National Aerospace Agency have been completed in accordance with the State Order. Hundreds of research works were successfully carried out at these organizations during 2007–2015 for application of achievements of science to production. 

At the meetings of 7 sections of the Scientific-Technical Counsel, functioning in the ministry since 2007, discussions were held on 80 topics and decisions for application of some of them into production have been taken.

Minister noted, that the progress made by the Ministry of Defence Industry within the short time results from the complex measures carried out by the Republic President Ilham Aliyev during the reconstruction of the industrial infrastructure in the country.

He stated that the works were in progress at the subordinate enterprises of the Ministry of Defence Industry on broadening of production and improving of armament, ammunition and military equipment to reinforce procurement of the Azerbaijan Armed Forces which are dashing enemy on the contact line with Armenia.   

Minister stressed that all above mentioned achievements result from the integrated actions carried out by the Republic President Ilham Aliyev during the reconstruction of the industrial infrastructure in the country.

The other speakers shared a deep feeling of joy on the occasion of celebration of the 10th anniversary of foundation of the Ministry of Defence Industry and their professional holiday on such a high level and noted that the staff of the ministry, experiencing unceasing attention and care on the part of the Head of State, under the leadership of the Republic President, the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces Ilham Aliyev will mobilize all powers for the development of the defence industry to furnish the National Army with new types of weapon, military equipment and ammunition.

During the ceremonial event the staff congratulated a group of Ministry’s employees awarded with honorary names and medals by the corresponding Orders of the Republic President Ilham Aliyev. The Ministry has also awarded the distinguished employees with the “Advanced Defense Industry Employee” badges, Honorary Orders, gratuity, precious presents and Honorary Orders of the Azerbaijan Trade Union Confederation.

In the end an appeal addressed to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on behalf of the Ministry’s staff has been accepted.