On June 8, 2023, the Italian company Leonardo announced that it had signed a contract to supply the Azerbaijani Air Force with an undisclosed number of Leonardo C-27J Spartan turboprop military transport aircraft. The contract was signed in Italy in the presence of representatives of the Ministries of Defense of both countries.
The second Leonardo C-27J NG Spartan military transport aircraft built for the Turkmen Air Force (tail number "21 blue"), 2021 (c) Francesco Cavallin
Azerbaijan thus became the 17th customer of the C-27J family of aircraft. To date, 87 serial C-27J aircraft have been delivered (plus two prototypes have been built), another Slovenian aircraft is expected to be delivered. Since 2020, the C-27J NG (Next Generation) version of the aircraft has been in serial production, which differ from the basic version by installing winglets on the wings, an updated avionics complex and navigation and communication equipment, and new cockpit equipment. Turkmenistan became the recipient of the first two C-27 NG aircraft in 2021.
Earlier, Azerbaijan signed an agreement with Leonardo in 2021 on the acquisition of a batch of M-346 Master combat training aircraft.
