Azerbaijani news agency News. az reports that a delegation from Azerbaijan was present, including Azerbaijani Minister of Defence Industry Vugar Mustafayev, at the booth. Mustafayev attended the opening ceremony with his Saudi counterpart.
Firearms put into exhibition include AK-pattern rifles, machine guns, the Istiglal anti-materiel rifle, IST-23 23x115 mm anti-materiel rifles and heavy machine guns. Over the last few years, Azerbaijan has added new firearms to its portfolio; these weapons are based on well-known layouts like the AK assault rifle and the PK machine gun but include Azerbaijan’s own design changes.
IST-23, also displayed in IDEF’23, is a rather unusual sight with its large ammunition seen on a Russian GSh-23 aircraft-mounted autocannon from the Eastern bloc. Weapons with this ammunition type have an average effective range of 2 km, but this might be different with IST-23. 23x115 mm is produced in high-explosive and armour-piercing types.
Among the UAVs are locally made İti Qovan catapult-launched kamikaze UAV and an unnamed VTOL/STOL UAV designed for ISR missions. STM’s KARGU rotary-wing kamikaze drone is also present among the UAVs.
