International Union of Aircraft Industry

An International Union of the Aircraft Industry has been officially set up in Moscow. The goal of the union, as its charter says, is to promote business activity in the field of aviation and aircraft manufacture, to enhance the social and legal status of the industry's enterprises, to render them legal and methodical help, and to protect the interests of union members in their dealings with bodies of state authority in member-countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, as well as international organisations.

The International Union of the Aircraft Industry plans to formulate the branch's uniform position on the formation of a state defence order as regards the aircraft industry, and to develop new types of equipment.

In 2001, the Russian aircraft industry provided more than half the earnings from military technical cooperation. It accounts for about 35 per cent of overall output of the defence complex and nearly 44 per cent of military production.