Azerbaijan’s Minister of Defense Industry Javer Jamalov told the Azeri Press Agency (APA) on Saturday his government has reached an agreement with Israel to purchase the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system.
The Iron Dome system, developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aircraft Industries, is designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells, fired from a distance of four to 70 kilometers. The system is activated when the trajectory of the incoming projectile is headed toward a populated area.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, for a visit this past week with his wife Sara. The prime minister met with President Ilham Aliyev, who announced to reporters at the time that his government has spent some $4.8 billion in contracts with Israel over the past two decades on the purchase of defense equipment.
During Netanyahu’s visit to the country, agreements were signed in the fields of standardization, double taxation, agricultural cooperation and the establishment of a mixed commission on advancing bilateral cooperation on economic matters, science, technology, health, agriculture and trade.