Azerbaijan gets Belarus-made multiple rocket launch system Polonez

Belarus has completed delivery of its new multiple rocket launch systems Polonez to Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani defence website armiya.az reports the Azerbaijani Armed Forces have already commissioned the Polonez batteries. The President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev stressed the importance of the deal by posing for a photo in front of the Polonez vehicles in a military unit in Azerbaijan.

The news that Azerbaijan was close to signing a contract for the shipment of Polonez from Belarus was reported in April by the Russian newspaper Kommersant. Observers suggested the deal could be regarded as a delayed response by Azerbaijan to Russia's delivery of its Iskander systems to Armenia. Relations between Baku and Yerevan remain tense over the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region.

On 16 May, Armenia's new Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan raised the Polonez for Azerbaijan issue when meeting in Sochi with Belarusian President Aliaksandr Lukashenka. Pashinyan said back then that Lukashenka's reaction to his words "was normal."

Polonez rockets made in Belarus with assistance from China have a range of 200 km, and even up to 300 km after modernization.