Russia 2009 Arms Exports Exceed Expectations

Russia’s top arms exporter said Thursday that their sales last year grew 10 percent despite the economic crisis, as it looked to add new clients like Saudi Arabia, Libya and possibly even Afghanistan.

The export sales of state-owned arms exporter Rosoboronexport amounted to 7.4 billion dollars (5.2 billion euros) in 2009, up 10 percent on the previous year, the company’s head Anatoly Isaikin said.

“This is a figure that allows us to look with optimism into the future,” he told reporters, noting that the crisis failed to make a dent in Russia’s overseas arms sales.

Total Russian arms sales were set to top 8.5 billion dollars in 2009, Mikhail Dmitriyev, head of the Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation, said last month, citing preliminary estimates.

Rosoboronexport is the leading but not the only exporter of Russian-made weapons.

Isaikin said that as of today Rosoboronexport boasted an order book amounting to 34 billion dollars, including contracts worth 15 billion dollars from last year.

Dmitry Vasilyev, an analyst with the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, said Russian arms sales could be even more significant, were it not for the domestic industry’s inability to keep up with “rather high demand” for Russian arms.

He praised the arms exporter’s current order book, saying that “if there was a breakthrough it was in contracts.”

The United States is the world’s largest arms exporter, followed by several countries, including Russia, Britain and France.

Moscow’s traditional arms customers have been India, China, Algeria and Malaysia, with Venezuela and Syria becoming more recent clients.

Aircraft account for half of all arms exports.

Rosoboronexport is looking to add a number of new clients like Saudi Arabia and Libya as well as NATO member countries, Isaikin said, declining to more specific.

“Currently intensive talks on supplies of all kinds of weapons are under way” with Libya, a Soviet-era client, Isaikin said, adding he hoped the prospect of weapons sales to Saudi Arabia were also “good.”

On Wednesday, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov discussed possible arms sales with his Libyan counterpart Abu Bakr Younis Jaber but officials did not say whether any firm agreements were in the pipeline.

Russian media reported earlier this week Libya was seeking to buy more than two billion dollars worth of Russian arms including 20 fighter planes.

Asked whether any deals could be signed during the Libyan delegation’s current visit, Isaikin told AFP the talks were “still continuing.”

Officials from Iraq and Afghanistan have also approached the Russians with a view to buying weapons but it would be up to the US administration to determine whether any such deals with Moscow could be possible, Isaikin added.

He reiterated Russia’s traditional stance that Moscow saw no “obstacle” to arms sales to Iran.

He declined however to disclose any new details on Russia’s controversial accord to sell Iran sophisticated S-300 air defence systems, which have yet to be delivered in a deal that alarmed the United States and Israel.

Rosoboronexport, Isaikin said, detected keen interest from foreign countries in the S-400, Russia’s latest generation of air defense missile systems, and “there are a lot of preliminary talks.”

However, the weapons would first be supplied to the country’s own army, while selling it overseas would be a matter of “distant future”, he said.

Russia’s first stealth fighter makes maiden flight

MOSCOW – Russia’s first stealth fighter intended to match the latest U.S. design made its maiden flight Friday, boosting the country’s efforts to modernize its rusting Soviet-built arsenals and retain its lucrative export market.

The Sukhoi T-50′s flight comes nearly two decades after the first prototype of the U.S. F-22 Raptor took to the air, and Russian officials said it will take another five years for the new jet to enter service. Still, the flight marked a major step in Russia’s efforts to burnish the faded glory of its aviation industries and strengthen a beleaguered military.

The sleek twin-engined jet closely resembling the Raptor flew for 47-minutes from an airfield at Sukhoi’s production plant in the Far Eastern city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur on Friday. Development of the so-called fifth-generation fighter has been veiled in secrecy and no images of it had been released before the flight.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hailed the flight as a “big step forward,” but admitted that “a lot remains to be done in terms of engines and armament.”

Craig Caffrey, an analyst for Jane’s Defense Procurement-Military Aircraft, said the new fighter is “hugely important,” both for modernizing the aging Russian air force fleet and retaining export markets.

“The T-50 should offer the Russian Air Force a significant boost in its capabilities and ensure that it remains one of the best equipped air forces in the world,” he told The Associated Press by e-mail.

Caffrey said the new fighter will attract many foreign customers. “For those countries that don’t traditionally purchase military equipment from the U.S. it will be the only fifth generation aircraft available,” he said.

The NPO Saturn company said in a statement that the jet has new engines, but military analysts suggested that they were a slightly modernized version of the Soviet-era engine powering the Su-27 family of fighters.

“It’s a humbug,” said independent military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer. “It’s just a prototype lacking new engines and a new radar. It takes new materials to build a fifth-generation fighter, and Russia lacks them.”

Putin said Friday the first batch of new fighters is set to enter an Air Force evaluation unit in 2013 and serial production is set to begin in 2015.

Caffrey said the task looks “very challenging, given the amount of new technology that is being incorporated into the new aircraft.”

Russian military analysts were also skeptical, pointing at a history of delays in the program and other Russian weapons projects.

“The schedule will likely be pushed back as usual,” said Alexander Konovalov, the head of the Moscow-based Institute of Strategic Assessment, an independent think tank.

Russia’s prospective Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile has failed in at least eight of its 12 test launches, dealing a blow to Russia’s hopes of making it a cornerstone of its nuclear arsenal. Officials have blamed the failures on manufacturing flaws resulting from post-Soviet industrial degradation.

Felgenhauer and other observers said the fighter program, which depends on hundreds of subcontractors, has been dogged by similar problems.

Russian officials have said the new fighter, like the Raptor, will have supersonic cruising speed and stealth capabilities. Its pilot, Sergei Bogdan, said in televised remarks that it was easy and pleasant to fly.

While officials saw the new fighter as essential, some analysts said the country has more pressing needs.

“There is no mission and no adversary for such plane,” Konovalov said, adding that the Russian military lacks a modern communications system and satellite navigation. “It would be more expedient to fit modern avionics to older generation jets.”

The U.S. administration decided to quit buying the F-22 Raptor, the world’s most expensive fighter jet at more than $140 million apiece, effectively capping its production at the 186 already ordered.

Russia denies fleet boost over US Poland missile plan

Russia on Thursday said it had no plans to boost the arsenal of its Baltic Fleet in response to Poland’s announcement that the United States will deploy Patriot-type missiles close to Russian borders.

“No changes are planned in the combat components of the Baltic Fleet in connection with the deployment of US Patriot missiles close to the border with Russia,” the defence ministry said in a statement carried by news agencies.

Earlier, the RIA Novosti news agency had quoted a high-ranking official in the Baltic Fleet as saying Russia would be boosting the weaponry of the fleet’s ships, submarines and aircraft in response to the Polish announcement.

“The underwater, surface and air components of the fleet will be strengthened,” the source told the news agency.

He said that ships would be equipped with highly accurate, longer-range missiles while the defences of submarines would also be boosted. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy in the reports.

The defence ministry statement said that any moves to rearm and modernize Russia’s navy — including the Baltic Fleet — would take place within the framework of an already announced military reform drive.

Poland’s Defence Minister Bogdan Klich said Wednesday the Patriot-type surface-to-air missiles would be deployed in northern Poland some 60 kilometres (35 miles) from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

He insisted the choice of the site close to Kaliningrad had “no political or strategic meaning — its good infrastructure is the only reason.” The Patriot missiles could arrive as soon as late March or early April, Klich said.

President Barack Obama in September scrapped a plan agreed in 2008 to install a controversial anti-missile shield system in Poland and the Czech Republic that had enraged Russia.

Russia to Become India’s Biggest Arms Supplier in 2010

Jan. 19 – Russia is set to become India’s top supplier of arms when a pending US$1.2 billion defense deal is signed for 29 MiG-29K fighter jets for the Indian Navy.

Russia is the world’s arms exporters followed by Israel and United States. Last December, it signed a 10-year military deal with India for weapons development, aircraft and maintenance contracts totaling more than US$5 billion.

Further negotiations on the India-Russia deal is expected to happen after Indian Republic day before awaiting final approval from the Cabinet Committee on Security.

Indian naval officers said in a statement that India will also lease the new Nerpa nuclear-powered submarine from Russia for 2010. ABCLive confirms that the new MiG-29K fighter jets will be stationed at Russian class aircraft carrier, Admiral Gorshkov.