Defense update
18.02.2008 11:14

*** General designer of Antonov Dmitry Kiva said Russia and Ukraine are still working on An-70, in spite of the official refusal of the Russian Federation to participate in the development of this military-transport aircraft. As for the turbo-prop An-140 “they are made in two small numbers, a number of contracts have been broken because the plants in Kiev and Kharkov are half ruined”. There are only two An-148. The third one being built in Kiev is already behind schedule. According to Kiva without state interference the aircraft building in the Ukraine will come to end.

*** Sevmash has introduced a new hi-tech method of building complicated sea platforms. The know how is based on the experience gained during the construction of the Norwegian platforms MOSS CS-50, when the shipyard had to buy Finnish equipment to fulfill the order. Now Russian specialists developed own technology to do the same kind of works. Now Sevmash is the only enterprise in Russia capable of fulfilling such orders. The representatives of Vyborg shipyard, another Russian company working with sea platforms got interested in sharing the technologies developed in Severodvinsk.

*** Azerbaijani Investment Company and Korean STX continue negotiations on joint building Caspian Shipyard near Baku. According to the Minister of Economic Development of Azerbaijan Gejdar Babayev STX insists no more than 25% of the stock. However Azerbaijan stipulated that the Koreans will be responsible for the managerial decisions even if they control only 25%. Construction of the new shipyard can start as early as in the first half of this year.

*** The production growth in the aviation industry of the Russian Federation in 2007 made 16,4 % in comparison with 2006.

*** The Nizhniy Novgorod enterprises so far do not support the initiative of manufacturing aviation engines. According to the chairman of the board of directors of NPO Aerovolga Sergey Alafinov it is more reasonable to buy the license for making already available engine, for example Lompraga 337 and 332.

*** NPO Saturn finished the tests of the engine 117Ñ for Su-35. Nest stage is flight tests of the plane.

*** India is ready to discuss additional payments for the modernization of the aircraft carrier "Admiral Gorshkov". There are no comments in Russia, the references are made only to Indians sources. Allegedly India is ready to pay additional $500-600 million, which is half of the sum claimed by Russia. Next news may come up after February, 19, after the visit of the official Indian delegation to Russia.

*** Ukraine is upset with the decision of Russia to make TV3-117 and VK-2500 independently. The head of "Motor Sich" Vyacheslav Boguslaev accused Russia of “super power ambitions”, although acknowledged that this decision is logic. The phrase of the editor-in-chief of the authoritative AviaportRu Oleg Panteleev is noteworthy: “we do not need Ukraine a lot”. However, there are some opinions in Russia which would support investing more into new engines than into punishing Ukraine with the current models.

** According to the head of the committee on national security of the Ukrainian parliament Anatoly Gritsenko the government did not fulfill the decision of the Security Council on creating the Agency on the Development of the Defense Complex. Former vice-premier on national security and defense Alexander Kuzmuk publicly said that the only result possible is the collapse of the military-industrial complex.

** S-400 complex "Triumph" in the nearest future will be commissioned in the Leningrad region. According to the Commander of the regional air defense forces general-lieutenant Vladimir Sviridov the new complex will replace several older S-300. New S-400 is capable of engaging any ground based targets too. Additionally in 2008 the new complexes will be also commissioned with the forces of the Command of Special Purpose (KSPN). As it was informed earlier, the second S-400 will be commissioned with KSPN in Moscow region.

** General director of UWZ Nikolay Malyh expressed concern about financing the technological upgrade of the defense enterprises at the meeting with the First Vice-President of the Government of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev. At the meeting in Ekaterinburg he said that the state programs in which UWZ participates too assume financing mainly for 2011-2015. At the same time a lot of enterprises started serious modernization right now. The companies want to get the opportunity to pay off the credits they had taken for these purposes in 2011 – 2015, but a special governmental decree is needed for that. So far it did not appear.

News source: ShipbuildingRu
Print version