Export of Russian armaments will top five bln dollars in 2005

MOSCOW, November 30 (Itar-Tass) - The Russian Defence and Industry Complex’s export of military hardware will top five billion U.S. dollars in 2005, First Deputy Director of the Federal Committee on Technical and Military Cooperation Alexander Denisov told reporters here on Wednesday.

“We are sure that the Russian president’s assignment to export 5.1 billion U.S. dollars worth of armaments and materiel will be fulfilled with only a few slight amendments,” he stressed.

“The correlation of export deliveries of Russian armaments and other military hardware has changed in recent years,” Denisov noted. Naval armaments accounted this year for 50-60 per cent of Russia’s total military exports. Deliveries of aviation materiel went down from seventy to thirty per cent. Means of anti-aircraft defence account for the rest.

“There are big problems with the sale abroad of weaponry for the ground forces,” Denisov said. Small arms, he noted, “will account for several per cent of the total amount of export deliveries”. “We believe this is short of our target in this domain”, stressed.

He hopes “the proportions, regarding means of aircraft defence, will alter next year thanks to the signing of new contracts”.

“The Russian defence and industry complex will usher in the new year with an export figure of 5 billion U.S. dollars and one billion dollars of this sum will be earned from deliveries of spares and completing parts for the already marketed armaments and hardware”.