X
    Categories: News

What are the long-term goals of Baku’s purchase of JF-17 fighters from Pakistan?

July 8, 2026

As is known, Azerbaijan ordered JF-17C (Block III) fighters from Pakistan for the first time. military exercises implemented.

By making a reference to Pakistani sources, we wrote that before the 2025 military parade held in Baku, the JF-17C Block-III fighters of the Pakistan Air Force arsenal were brought to Azerbaijan in the context of the joint Azerbaijani-Pakistani Air Force exercise “Indus Shield Alpha”.

This information was later confirmed by Azerbaijanis as well the media, including standing close to the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan caliber.azthe

And the goal of the exercise was to improve cooperation, tactical coordination and operational compatibility between the air forces of the two countries. That is, this joint Azerbaijan-Pakistan exercise is focused on joint development, planning and mission execution of modern air combat tactics in the conditions of rapid technological development.

Read also

  • Washington and Tehran on the verge of a fragile memorandum and a new war
  • Episodes of transporting military personnel and equipment by railway, capturing defense regions were played out in Azerbaijan
  • I’m sorry, dear Tsarukyan, I have to tell you… the Turk is opening champagne… Dear Morkur, go home, why are you dragging us into the war? Arman Abovyan

In addition, the Indus Shield Alpha military event has served as an important platform for sharing operational information and strengthening joint response capabilities in the event of potential air defense challenges.

More substantively, Baku considered the landing, evacuation, turn-around and other actions of fighters from Pakistan to Azerbaijan at its own base as part of the exercise important in terms of assessing the capabilities of the JF-17C Block-IIIs, which it expressed readiness to acquire.

That is, this allows decision makers to assess how fighter systems work within the national command and control architecture in interaction with existing air defense, reconnaissance and surveillance assets.

And, in fact, JF-17C fighters are already in the arsenal of the Air Force of the Azerbaijani Army.

According to Defense Security Asia, Baku’s decision to purchase JF-17 Block III fighter jets from Azerbaijan confirms the assessment that future regional conflicts will increasingly depend on the use of long-range air-to-air missiles, distributed targeting systems, high-precision strike capabilities and robustness to radio-electronic warfare, and not on outdated Soviet air combat doctrines.

And in this context, experts consider the acquisition of JF-17 fighter jets in the context of Pakistan-Azerbaijan-Turkey defense cooperation. Why?

We wrote a long time ago that taking into account the strategic relations between Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey, it is possible that the Turkish air-to-air missiles Gökdoğan and Bozdoğan, which are still under evaluation, will be integrated into the fighters in the future.

Moreover, in March of this year, Azerbaijani sources had reported that Azerbaijan has ordered 40 units of the newest electro-optical targeting system ASELPOD from Turkey for JF-17 fighters, developed for combat aircraft.

The system allows you to detect and track long-range targets, determine their geographic location, and deliver accurate strikes.

Moreover, ASELPOD can be integrated with F-16 and unmanned aerial vehicles.

In other words, in the case of the JF-17 in Azerbaijan’s arsenal, we are dealing with the interaction of Turkish drone systems, ASELPOD targeting containers, tactical data transmission channels and a wider architecture of digital control of the battle space developed according to NATO standards and models.

In this context, let us recall that earlier we wroteTurkey’s military system was linked to NATO’s command and control system for 44 days.

“The use of F-16s, which revealed our entire air defense system… The military air force of that country is among the most developed military air forces in NATO member states. Why? Because they were one of the first countries to create a system of command, control, communication, intelligence management. And that military system, in turn, was interconnected with the NATO command and control system,” former RA Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan detailed in the Investigative Commission.

And a few more specialists episode are distinguished in connection with the new fighters added to the arsenal of Baku:

■ The JF-17 fighter, due to its compatibility with the Chinese PL-15E missile, is able to hit targets outside its direct line of sight.

■ The combat aircraft’s estimated range of 900 km allows for long-term air operations in wider areas of the Caspian Sea region without direct dependence on vulnerable front-line operational infrastructure.

■ The ability of the JF-17 fighter to integrate anti-ship missiles, including the C-802AK, in particular, will allow strengthening Baku’s ability to protect strategic maritime energy infrastructure in the Caspian Sea.

In other words, as Defense Security Asia observes, Baku is hinting at “broader lessons” learned from recent regional conflicts. Whether or not different specialists will allow some exaggerations in relation to this or that weaponry is not important in this case.

It is also a fact that after the 44-day war, Baku immediately has started the process of modernization of the country’s air force, especially with the help of Turkey. Let’s not forget the Su-25 bombers modernization equipped with Turkish SOM ŞAHİN cruise missiles, the flight range is more than 250 km.

Let’s return to the JF-17 fighters and draw attention to an important fact. according to various international professional platforms, The fighter jets purchased from Pakistan were deployed at the Nasosnaya (Arabic: Nasosnı aviabazası) military airbase, which is located not far from Sumgait city.

That is, in the context of the purchase of these fighters, Azerbaijan is carrying out large-scale construction and infrastructure modernization works. In particular, with different information՝ new hangars were built for the protection and maintenance of modern aircraft, and modern infrastructure was created.

In other words, in fact, an attempt is being made to make the Nasosnaya air base, equipped with fighter jets, one of the most important and best protected strategic facilities of the Azerbaijani Air Force.

168.ammonths ago had informed that the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, approved the changes in the law “On Expropriation of Land for State Needs”. According to the approved amendments, the expansion of state-owned airports and aerodromes, as well as the construction of new airports and aerodromes, have been added to the list of state needs for which land expropriation can be carried out.

To what extent the RA government takes note of the above, although, as we mentioned, the acquisition of JF-17 fighter jets by Baku has broad goals, we can only make assumptions. On the other hand, after the Yerevan military parade on May 28, to which had made flights Su-30s, international experts and had made certain records.

In particular, both Military Watch Magazine (MWM) and OSINT analysts (intelligence based on open sources) Iranian “Yasin” planing aerial bombs were noticed under the wings of the Su-30s in the arsenal of the RA Armed Forces.

By: open data, The Yasin high-precision bomb with a planning and correction module weighs 300 kilograms, the mass of the warhead is 225 kilograms, and it belongs to the MK-82 class.

The aerial bomb is designed for hitting stationary targets using GPS satellite navigation and inertial navigation systems.

According to available information, the range of the bomb under standard conditions is 50-60 kilometers, and in case of release or throwing from the optimal height, it can reach up to 120 kilometers.

In other words, Suren Papikyan promised Supplements for the Su-30s have arrived. But we should not forget that RA has only 4 Su-30, while there was an agreement to buy 8-12 units, which would require appropriate airfield and technical infrastructure. This has not been done. What Baku is doing, by the way, according to various reports, Aliyev intends to buy up to 40 units of JF-17 fighters.

Greg Madatian:
Related Post