Caspian News
By Mushvig Mehdiyev
August 9, 2020
Azerbaijan will beef up its marine fleet after purchasing ultra-modern
Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) response crafts from a leading
US-based marine company, worth more than $7 million.
The United States Marine Inc., a company that designs, builds and
tests boats for military, patrol and special warfare, among other
uses, announced this week that it will supply 15 EOD response craft
boats to Azerbaijan, in a deal worth $7,572,364.
“Work will be performed in Gulfport, Mississippi and is expected
to be completed by April 2022,” according to Navy Recognition.
“Foreign Military Sales funding in the amount of $7,572,364 will be
obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current
fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the
contracting activity.”
The nine-meter-long cutting-edge crafts are made out of composite
materials through a process called resin infusion lamination. The
United States Marine Inc. offers the boats in Open Center Console and
Cabin variants, both equipped with Twin Mercury Verado 250 horsepower
4 Stroke Outboard Gasoline engines. The EOD response crafts can reach
sprint speeds of up to 39+ knots, with cruising speeds of up to 30+
knots. They can be used for harbor patrol, passenger transport, diving
operations, evacuations and unmanned system operations. The boats are
equipped with a 50-caliber machine gun forward and aft.
Alexander Tikhanski, a military expert based in Belarus, says
military-technical cooperation with the world's leading arms companies
allows Azerbaijan to actively modernize its Armed Forces.
“Azerbaijan has spent $3.7 billion on its army at the peak of
equipment purchases. At present, the Azerbaijani army is the strongest
in the region after Russia and Turkey,” Tikhanski said.
The government of Azerbaijan allocated $2.27 billion for military and
national security purposes in the 2020 state budget. The amount is six
times higher than military spending in Georgia and three times higher
than Armenia. It is ranked 64th among the 138 countries of the world
and is the strongest in the South Caucasus region, according to data
compiled by independent military data tracker Global Firepower.
Azerbaijan's naval force includes one frigate, four submarines, seven
mine warfare and 13 patrol boats, among other assets.
The United States Marine Inc. is not the first American defense
company to secure a procurement deal with Azerbaijan. In September
2019, the Virginia-based VSE Corporation was awarded a $10 million
contract to supply the Caspian country’s military with
counterterrorism and intelligence equipment.
Azerbaijan is a strategically important US partner in the South
Caucasus and the Caspian Sea region due to its strategic location in
Eurasia and has proven to be a reliable energy exporter to
Washington’s allies in Europe, as well as a loyal NATO partner.
Additionally, Azerbaijan was one of the first countries to provide
assistance to the US in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terror
attacks. Azerbaijani troops have been part of NATO peacekeeping forces
in Afghanistan since 2002 and even opened its airspace to US-led
coalition troops fighting there.
When the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission was launched in January
2015, Baku increased its contribution from 94 soldiers to 120.
Azerbaijan is the only country out of the five Caspian Sea nations to
contribute to this mission and 40 percent of the non-military supplies
to US and coalition forces in Afghanistan passes through Azerbaijani
territory.
Washington provides US security assistance and military contact
programs in Azerbaijan, including the Foreign Military Sales (FMS),
through the Office of Defense Cooperation Azerbaijan. Under the FMS
program, Washington provides defense equipment, services and training
to Azerbaijan.
Between 2018 and 2019, Azerbaijan's State Border Service and State
Customs Committee received security and defense assistance worth
$101.5 million from the US through the Department of Defense’s Section
333 program, according to Security Assistance Monitor, a Washington DC
watchdog.
The assistance package included 59 high-speed boats and other maritime
equipment, 60 ATV motorcycles and other vehicles, 401 surveillance
radar and other electronic equipment and 450,516 tactical vests and
other individual equipment.
Strengthening its defense capabilities is a key priority for the
Azerbaijani government, given its ongoing conflict with Armenia in
Azerbaijan's internationally recognized Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Following a full-scale war between the two countries from 1991-1994,
Armenia occupied the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven adjacent
districts which comprise 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally
recognized territory. The bloody war claimed the lives of 30,000
ethnic Azerbaijanis, while one million were displaced forcibly from
their homes amidst occupation and mass ethnic cleansing campaigns by
Armenia's forces.
Since then, Armenia has repeatedly ignored international calls and UN
Security Council Resolutions calling for the withdrawal of its
occupying forces from Azerbaijani lands. Armenia's army also regularly
targets Azerbaijani positions and civilian areas, in a direct
violation of the 1994 ceasefire agreement between the two countries.