Azerbaijan Test Fires Belarus-upgraded Buk-MB Missile System

Azerbaijan carried out field testing of its upgraded Buk-MB anti-aircraft missile systems to check its combat readiness on October 14, the Defense Ministry told APA.

“During the execution of tasks in the conditions of complex electronic warfare jamming, air defense units have detected and taken for tracing the high-speed, small-sized air targets of the conventional enemy and destroyed them with practical missile firings,” the ministry said.

Azerbaijan’s Armed Forces received two battalion sets of Buk air defense missile systems with six launchers and three launcher-loaders each, in 2013 and 2014. In 2013, Belarussia's OKB TSP had contracted to receive decommissioned Buk systems, overhaul them, and replace subsystems, components, and assemblies at its production facility in Minsk.

The Belarus-upgraded Buk-MB SAM system comprises six 9A310MB self-propelled transporter erector launcher and radar (TELAR) vehicles, each mounting four SAMs (a total of 24 missiles), and three 9A39MB transporter erector launcher (transloader) vehicles. The transloaders transport and reload the missiles for the 9A310MB TELAR, and have the capability to also act as a TEL. They transport eight missiles, of which four can be fired from the elevatable platform (for a total of 12 missiles) if required.