Russia to demonstrate the increased possibilities of its defence enterprises in Farnborough

On Monday an airspace show opens in Farnborough, Great Britain. The show will last till July 28th.

The main aim of Russia's participation in this show is to demonstrate the increased possibilities of its defence enterprises, Viktor Komardin, deputy director general of the unitarian enterprise Rosoboronexport, told the RIA Novosti correspondent the day before.

By the decision of the Russian government this enterprise has been appointed to be the organiser of the defence part of the Russian exposition at the air show.

"More than twenty enterprises and organisations of the Russian defence industry will take part in the show," said he. "In an area of 400 square metres - in pavilions and chalets - we shall display the information in the form of models, posters and advertising material about over two hundred different models of aircraft and armaments. Apart from that, the civil airspace enterprises will demonstrate their products; they will be presented by Rosaviakosmos.

Viktor Komardin underscored that Russia would draw the attention of the West European market to its new models of aviation equipment and aircraft simulators, which help effectively train spacemen and pilots, and also to the possibility of modernising Russian planes deployed in the countries of the former "Eastern military bloc." The deputy director general of Rosoboronexport expressed regret that due to the position of the organisers of the air show, who actually support the demands of the Swiss firm Noga to arrest Russian planes allegedly because Russia had not paid its 70-million debt to the firm, Russia does not have a chance to demonstrate its up-to-date models of military planes and helicopters which had been produced by state enterprises. "Neither the MiG nor the Sukhoi, nor other well known state aircraft enterprises will be able to demonstrate their new planes and to show the performance of these planes in the skies above Britain," said he.

Viktor Komardin said that the popularity of Russian aircraft and armaments was growing. "Only in 2001, did we conclude more than one thousand contracts with sixty-nine countries and received over four billion dollars for the sold military equipment. This is the biggest sum we got from the sale in the past ten years. In its portfolio, Rosoboronexport has signed contracts to a total of more than 13 billion dollars."