Turkey’s state-owned ASFAT to send 20 minesweepers to Azerbaijan

Turkish state-owned defense firm ASFAT will make its first delivery of minesweeping equipment to Azerbaijan, the company said Wednesday.

Following its liberation of the Armenian-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region, Baku must now clear the lands of mines left as traps by the withdrawing Armenian forces.

Cemeteries, in particular, were said to have been turned into minefields on the assumption they would be one of the first places the returning Azerbaijanis would want to visit.

In a continuation of its support to the country, Ankara will provide Baku with 20 minesweepers in order to assist Azerbaijan.

“We export 20 MEMATTs (Mechanical Mine Clearing Equipment), which were produced by ASFAT for the first time in our country with domestic and national means, to meet the needs of the Turkish Armed Forces, to our brotherly country Azerbaijan,” ASFAT said in a Twitter statement with the hashtag #YerliveGüçlü (“DomesticandStrong”).

The first two MEMATTs will be delivered as soon as the contract is signed, while the rest will be delivered gradually until mid next year.

Azerbaijan will be the first country to purchase the MEMATT.

MEMATTs, covered with Armox 500T, the world's toughest guard plate is mine-resistant and can be remotely controlled from a distance of 500 meters (1640.42 feet).

The equipment can move at a speed of 4 kilometers per hour (2.48 miles per hour), descend to a depth of 25 centimeters and clear a 1-kilometer-long, 1.7-meter-wide area of mines within an hour.