Russia to Traditionally Feature Aeronautical Equipment at Lad 2003 Arms Exhibition

At the 5th international Latin American arms and defence technology exhibition LAD 2003, which opens in Rio de Janeiro on April 22, Russia will traditionally feature its aeronautical engineering, a Rosoboronexport spokesman said on Friday. Rosoboronexport is the umbrella organisation for Russian defence companies.

The firms Sukhoi, Sukhoi OKB, and the Komsomolsk-on-Amur aviation plant will display in Brazil a gamut of multi-role Su-27 fighters; the Kazan helicopter plant and Kamov company will have ground- and carrier-based helicopters on view, and the corporation concerned with tactical missile armaments from Korolyov, outside Moscow, will show a series of different air missiles.

What is more, the source told RIA Novosti, "our experts are ready to give specialists visiting the exhibition consultations on practically all the range of arms and military hardware being offered for export".

The Kovrov mechanical plant and the Arzamas engineering works will demonstrate, according to the spokesman, equipment for ground troops.

Another distinction of Russian exhibits at LAD 2003 will be a wide array of civilian products manufactured by Russia's defence firms, mainly aeronautical equipment - multi-functional, passenger and sports airplanes and helicopters.

A Ka-31 radar surveillance helicopter is scheduled to be presented at the exhibition.

Rosoboronexport, its spokesman emphasised, believes that "Russian-Latin American cooperation has a great potential, and a big factor contributing to business cooperation here may be more detailed information on the sides' actual capabilities".

In this, according to him, Rosoboronexport sees one of the main tasks of its participation in LAD 2003 and so, in its turn, invites Latin American military specialists to visit the 1st international naval show in St Petersburg in June and the MAKS aviation salon in Moscow in August of this year.