http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/89/357/15262_arms.html
Russia and USA ardently compete for export of arms
04/09/2005 13:02
Russia has lost a great share of its economic, scientific and technical
potential over the period of the USSR's breakup and reforming
India has always been Russia's permanent partner in military and
technical cooperation. However, today it rather prefers military technique
produced in the West, the tactic that is painful for Russia indeed.
Delhi wants to equip the Indian Air Force with US F-16 and F-18
all-purpose pursuit planes. India plans to adopt 126 fighters of this type
instead of the Russian MiG-21 they are having now. The USA is ready to discuss
even more fundamental issues with India: the previously secret spheres such as
army command, early warning system and anti-missile defense. India has already
got a wide range of America's proposals meant to extend the military-technical,
nuclear and space cooperation between both countries, spokesperson for the
Indian Foreign Ministry Navtej Sarna says.
These new tendencies are really distressing for Russia: India has always
been Russia's key partner in military and technical cooperation. The volume of
military and technical cooperation between both countries has reached $33
billion since 1960. In addition to supplies of military technique, Russian and
Indian experts are working on new armament systems. Today, even Israel
concludes military contracts with India to bigger sums than Russia.
The situation seems to be logical, however. Russia has lost a great share
of its economic, scientific and technical potential over the period of the
USSR's breakup and reforming. As a result, the competitiveness of the Russian
military technique has declined on world markets.
Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, member of the Council for
foreign and defense policy Major-General in reserve, Pavel Zolotarev, says:
"Russia's positions are weak as concerning many parameters." In an interview to
PRAVDA.Ru Pavel Zolotarev cited the example of China. "Russia supplies military
technique to China, but Russia's electronics is poor. That is why China
purchases electronics in the US."
In all contracts concluded within the past years India stipulates that
Russian military high-tech equipment must be equipped with radio electronics
produced by other countries. It is said that Russia managed to conclude a
contract for supplies of Su-30MKI to India only because France and Israel were
also invited to participate in the contract. At that, India equipped the
machines with some of Indian equipment.
The popularity of Russian arms abroad is seriously marred with their poor
quality. Experts state that reclamation for Russian arms increased ten times in
Russia and twenty times abroad. Pavel Zolotarev also adds that only military
technique that is adopted and actively operated by the producer is in demand on
the world market. "Because of financial problems, Russia does not purchase and
adopt new military equipment. That is why it is impossible to find out its
faults for further improvement," Pavel Zolotarev says. And the Russian defense
complex suffers serious losses when faults of military equipment become evident
when it is already exported. The Russian defense complex subsists only on
export today when Russia and the USA are the key rival arms exporters. And
Russia is gradually losing its positions there, the expert adds.
Earlier, Russian arms were popular because of the low price. But today
the situation is changing, and the price is going up for several reasons. At
the same time, the USA offers reasonable prices for second-hand military
technique (this is the type of USA's relationship with Poland).
Still, Russia is rather strong in some sector of the world arms market.
Now, India is ready to conclude a contract with Russia for supplies of 400
T-90C tanks. But it is stipulated that the tanks must be equipped with French
devices. Russian tanks are rather competitive today because this sphere is not
so speedily developing as aviation. Experts emphasize that Russia needs new
research and development work and purchases of new military technique for the
Russian army to consolidate its positions on the world market of arms.
Read the original in Russian:
http://www.pravda.ru/economics/2005/7/23/331/19543_india.html (Translated by:
Maria Gousseva)
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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