Russian Expo Arms 2002 presented its sensations. What’s next?

The exhibition has been working for a week, since Jul 8th. As it is clear from the title of the exhibition, the major objective of the whole event is to present the latest developments and achievements of the Russian defense industry to potential clients.

Despite hard financial conditions, the Russian defense complex has something to boast of. Alexander Dondukov, the deputy chairman of the committee for defense and security of the Federation Council, said that some of the Russian developments were ten or fifteen years ahead of their foreign analogues. However, it is not easy to convince potential customers of that. Russian enterprises do not have an opportunity to show their defense technology on world’s largest exhibitions of arms. The reason why is very simple – there is not enough money to deliver exhibits to the sites, where exhibitions actually take place. The director of the Russian agency for ammunition, Zinovy Pak, said that the transportation costs of only one tank made up about one million dollars. Therefore, Russian companies often lose to foreign competitors just because of the fact that they can not show their production to anyone.

Needless to mention that such exhibitions are a lot cheaper, if they take place in Russia. In addition to that, the range ground in the city of Nizhni Tagyl is the biggest in the world. There is even a pool there for demonstrating amphibian vehicles.

The company Uraltransmash presented a new model of self-propelled artillery vehicle MCTA-C. This model is capable of firing at the distance of 40 kilometers. The fire control systems works according to the principle “shoot and forget” – the date are entered in its computer from satellite automatically, the computer chooses the type of the shell, the speed of the fire, determines the distance, and the crew works on another target right after a shot. MCTA-C is not worse than its foreign analogues like American M-109 or German PZH-2000. It is even better, when it comes to riding and speed characteristics.

The company Rosvertol presented its new development too – MI-28H chopper. This is the helicopter of the fourth generation, there are several new designing novelties in this model. Its armor can stand the blow of a 30-millimter shell, the chopper is equipped with a radar, which allows it to fly at any time and in any weather. MI-28H is capable of carrying up to 16 air-to-surface missiles, this helicopter is better in terms of technical and tactical characteristics as compared to American Apache helicopter. MI-28H costs about eight million dollars, whereas Apache costs $24 million.

Of course, the list goes on: there were new anti-aircraft emplacements presented, new uniform, and other unique developments like glass armor. Representatives from 51 countries of the world (from the USA, Canada, Israel, India, South Korea, Switzerland) attended the exhibition, over 30 thousand people in total. This proves the great interest in the Russian defense technology.

Russian enterprises have not concluded any contracts yet. There is nothing surprising about it, because the main goal of the exhibition is to show the production to potential customers. The organizers of the event are apparently satisfied with that.

Vasily Bubnov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov