Turkey's newest military trainer has found a buyer next door. At the ADEX 2026 defence exhibition in Baku on 30 September, Turkey and Azerbaijan signed a package of defence contracts worth more than $500 million, and the headline item was an order for 14 Hürkuş-II turboprop trainers from Turkish Aerospace (TUSAŞ/TAI).

The deal lands one day after the Turkish Air Force formally took delivery of its own first Hürkuş-IIs. According to Turkey's defence procurement chief, Azerbaijan's aircraft will follow very quickly, with deliveries due this year.

What Azerbaijan Is Buying

The Hürkuş is a single-engine, tandem two-seat turboprop trainer named after Vecihi Hürkuş, the pioneer who built Turkey's first aircraft. The original prototype first flew in August 2013. The Hürkuş-II, also known as the Hürkuş-B, is the military version with a modern glass cockpit, head-up display and multifunction displays laid out to resemble those of the F-16, which makes the step up to fast jets easier for student pilots.

Power comes from a 1,600 shp Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-68T driving a five-bladed propeller, good for a top speed of about 310 knots. Turkey has 55 Hürkuş-IIs on order for its own air force. Earlier Hürkuş variants have been exported to Libya, Niger and Chad.

A Package, Not Just a Plane

The trainer order was only one part of the Baku signing. Baykar will supply Mızrak smart loitering munitions and Antidot systems, Roketsan its Barbaros coastal defence system, and Aselsan signed a memorandum of understanding on ALP-100 radars. Further agreements cover academic cooperation, research and logistics, and a preliminary deal between Aselsan and Azerbaijan's NOVASIS on a factory in Nakhchivan.

For Azerbaijan, the trainers fill a real gap. Its combat fleet has long relied on Soviet-era types such as the Su-25 and MiG-29, and in 2025 Pakistan confirmed the sale of up to 40 JF-17 Thunder Block III fighters to Baku in a deal reported at $4.6 billion. A modern trainer with a fighter-style cockpit is the logical next step in building a new pilot pipeline for those jets.

Brothers in Arms

Turkey and Azerbaijan describe themselves as one nation, two states, and their defence ties have deepened steadily since the 2020 Karabakh war, in which Turkish-built Bayraktar TB2 drones played a prominent role. Görgün framed the latest contracts the same way, saying the two countries would train their engineers together and that local production and joint projects would strengthen their bonds.

For TUSAŞ, the order is a timely export win for a programme that has taken more than a decade to mature. Fourteen aircraft is not a huge number, but in the trainer market every new operator counts, and a delivery inside the same year is the kind of reference that sells the next deal.

Sources: Daily Sabah, TRT World, Defence Turkey, Aviation Week, Wikipedia