Kommersant: Belarus Is To Send Palanezes To Azerbaijan This Year

• 18.04.2018, 7:58

The first contract provides for the transfer of ten MRL sets.

The Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan has already visited Belarus, where he got acquainted with the multiple rocket launcher Palanez’s manufacturing process. Analysts view these deliveries as an answer to Yerevan, which has purchased Russian Iskanders, Kommersant reports.

According to the Russian newspaper, the supplies of Palanezes to Azerbaijan can start this year. A source close to the Belarusian Defense Ministry has told Kommersant that the first contract provides for the transfer of ten MRL sets (missiles, transport-loading cars, control stations, radar stations, etc.). The legal documents are almost ready, and the client "is finishing solving the financial issues." At that, according to the source, Minsk is not giving a loan this time.

Two top managers of Russian defense industry enterprises have informed Kommersant that the buyer is Azerbaijan.

Military analysts view this contract as "Azerbaijan's belated response to Russia's delivery of Iskander complexes to Armenia." Kommersant’s interlocutor believes that the delivery of weapons capable of hitting urban and military infrastructure, airfields, road and river networks, as well as living force, will be perceived negatively in Yerevan, but the Iskanders will play a deterrent role.