Azerbaijan adapts Naval Special Forces structure into Turkish model

Azerbaijani Navy commander, Vice-Admiral Subhan Bakirov has said that the structure of the nation’s Naval Special Forces has been amended to be adapted to the Turkish model.

He said relevant fundamental changes were made to the organizational and staff structure of the military unit in line with the order of the defence minister, Report informs.

The vice-admiral noted that the personnel constantly take part in various courses and training organized by allied countries and partners.

"Today [June 25], our sailors demonstrate their knowledge and skills not only in local, but also in international exercises and events, and carry out tasks with high professionalism," he added.

According to Bakirov, the Azerbaijani Navy's ship fleet will be upgraded and new reconnaissance systems will be procured.

The Navy commander said meetings are being held with advanced defence industry companies on the renewal of the ship fleet, the acquisition of surveillance, reconnaissance and communication systems.

"Some of the above projects will be implemented in stages in the near future,” he noted.

"The Navy is successfully implementing the requirements of the Maritime Security Strategy approved by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and according to the training plan approved by the Minister of Defence, Col-Gen Zakir Hasanov, is coping decently with all the tasks," Bakirov added.

The military sailors are capable of preventing any threat to the sovereignty of the Republic of Azerbaijan from both sea and land and are constantly improving in this direction, Bakirov stressed.

He said that in addition to maintaining maritime security, defence and a favourable operational regime in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, the strength of the Azerbaijani Navy is manifested by the heroism of naval special forces during the 44-day Second Karabakh War of 2020.