 Azerbaijan snubbed Russia's latest fighter jets for competitors from Turkey and Pakistan. The small, oil-rich South Caucasus country of Azerbaijan has big plans to upgrade its modest fleet of fighter jets over the next decade. The business insider wrote this. It is noted that, however, rather than turn to Russia its traditional arms supplier for decades, Baku will likely acquire modern fighters from Pakistan and Turkey. The turn-away from Russia shows that long-time allies like Azerbaijan are finding effective arms sellers who aren't afflicted by the problems of Russia's newest fighter jets. Unconfirmed reports in Azerbaijani and Pakistani media surfaced in late February claiming Azerbaijan reached a deal with Pakistan to buy an undisclosed number of JF-17C Thunder fighter jets for $1.6 billion. Azerbaijan officially joined Turkey's TF-Khan 5th Generation Fighter Program last July, strongly suggesting it will acquire that jet. The Khan made its maiden flight in February. Russia previously tried to market the 4.5-generation Su-30SM, Su-35 and MiG-35 fighters to Azerbaijan in the late 2010s. Azerbaijan's president said in 2018 that his country had spent $5 billion on Russian military hardware. But now, it doesn't seem likely, Baku will turn to Moscow for a 4.5-generation aircraft. Azerbaijan is even less likely to invest in Russia's troubled 5th Generation Su-57 or Su-75 Checkmate jets. Russia has been Azerbaijan's largest arms supplier until recent years, said Frederiko Borsari, a defense expert at the Center for European Policy Analysis. However, things have progressively changed as Russia launched a reckless war of aggression against Ukraine and started to lose influence among countries in the Caucasus amidst growing difficulties in Ukraine and financial constraints, Borsari told Business Insider. Turkey, among others, has exploited this situation from a security standpoint and started to expand its military cooperation in Baku, including through weapons sales. Consequently, Turkish sales to Azerbaijan began increasing in 2017, while Russian arms exports halted around 2019. Against this backdrop, the rumored JF-17 purchase from Pakistan further consolidates this trend of progressive detachment from Moscow's fold and may also be the result of the poor performance of Russian aircraft and the Air Force overall in Ukraine, Borsari said. Given close relations with Turkey and ambivalent ones with Russia, its preference for the latter is understandable, particularly given Russia's own problems, bringing Su-57s into service, Rublin told Insider. Borsari said Azerbaijan's participation in the Karn project is, first and foremost, the natural consequence of a long-standing and growing security partnership between Ankara and Baku that stems from their close political and diplomatic ties. For both countries, this appears to be a win-win solution, Borsari said. US F-35s over Ukraine Pentagon made a statement. The US has denied flying F-35s over Ukraine after Singapore's Defense Minister Ng Nghen claimed that the advanced fighter jets were being used to monitor Russian troops in the region. Nghen made the remarks last Wednesday while speaking in the National Parliament about the importance of long-term planning in the defense industry. He in particular mentioned that Singapore was closely evaluating the US-made F-35, especially when it comes to its use in real-world conditions. He noted that the US has used the F-35 not only to target Islamic State terrorists in the Middle East but also to locate and identify surface-to-air missile sites of Russian units in Ukraine, adding that this reconnaissance was later shared with NATO members. He did not say whether an F-35 ever entered Ukrainian airspace or if flights were carried out over NATO territory. A spokesperson for the Pentagon declined to comment on the Minister's remarks but stressed that, I can confirm that the US does not fly F-35s in Ukraine. Last March, the website C4ISRnet reported, citing Colonel Craig Andrell, the commander of the 388th Fighter Wing, that the US used F-35 to gather reconnaissance on threats in Ukraine and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. The fighters were able to locate and identify surface-to-air missile sites and pass that information to the rest of the coalition. The article said, However, while Andrell stressed that F-35 could be a formidable war asset, without firing a single shot due to its intelligence-gathering capabilities, it sometimes struggled to snoop on Russian positions. The colonel recalled that the F-35 had failed to identify a Russian S-300 missile system because it was potentially operating in a war reserve mode that we haven't seen before. Since the Ukraine conflict began in February 2022, NATO has increased its air presence in Eastern Europe, deploying additional fighters and surveillance aircraft.