Aviakonversiya Head: USA Accuses Russian Companies of Selling Weapons to Iraq to Explain Missed Targets

The Americans are accusing Russian companies of selling military hardware to Iraq in a bid to explain the missed targets in Baghdad, Aviakonversiya Head Oleg Antonov said to RIA Novosti on Monday.

The US accused Russia of supplying jamming stations to account for cruise missiles and smart bombs' missing the targets in Baghdad.

Aviakonversiya designs and produces interference stations to jam signals from satellite positioning systems that guide cruise missiles and other high-precision weapons.

Antonov said that "the company had never supplied such equipment." Reports that the US fails to deliver pinpoint strikes suggest that Iraq could possess such equipment. The Aviakonversiya head believes that the Iraqis could produce such devices themselves or buy them from third countries.

Antonov stated that when they saw Russian jamming stations at the air show in Zhukovsky in 1997, the Americans bought them to find out their impact on US high-precision weapons.

US experts concluded that such stations prevent cruise missiles and smart bombs from being guided precisely, so artillery cannot be guided to a target. Russian sensors led to the collapse of the American high-precision weapons system and the American strategic non-nuclear doctrine that is based on it.

Washington levelled its accusations back in September 2002, Antonov stated, when the US political leadership announced that it would carry out an air strike against Iraq in the future, the way it did in Yugoslavia. The Aviakonversiya head believes that "the Pentagon stated that there would not be a similar effect /like in Yugoslavia/ because Iraq could possess such stations." According to Antonov, "then Washington decided to put off a military operation. All accusations were then voiced to the Russian Ambassador." Aviakonversiya representatives explained everything to competent Russian bodies. "We said that it was a lie, we supplied nothing and everything was hushed up," Antonov said.

Now the Americans are spreading such information in the media after their high-precision weapons missed the targets, Antonov believes. "Everything can be explained by their wish to find "a scapegoat", the enterprise head announced.