Bluezoo
02-10-2005, 11:40 AM
Russian Arms Exports Hit Ceiling: Top Executive
By *******, MOSCOW
Russia’s arms exports have hit a ceiling because of insufficient investment in the defense industry, the country’s top exporter said Feb. 9.
Russia exported a record $5.7 billion in arms and military hardware last year, 80 percent of it to China and India, said Rosoboronexport head Sergei Chemezov.
“It’s clear that further growth is impossible without serious investment ... We’ve reached a ceiling,” he told Itar-Tass news agency. “Construction bureaus have great new inventions and promising projects — but they don’t have the money to turn ideas into cold steel.”
Russia’s arms industry, a core contributor to the national economy during the Cold War, shrank in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union left the state controlled business without substantial government funding.
Production and exports picked up under President Vladimir Putin, but sales were a fraction of what they were in Soviet times.
“Although Russian arms and military hardware are competitive on the global market, we are still mainly talking about modified products designed in the late 1970s and early 1980s,” Chemezov said.
Producers have long been asking government to allocate funds for research into next-generation technology, especially for strategic rocket forces and the navy.
Fighter jets make up about two-thirds of Russia’s arms exports but the fragmented nature of the industry has held back the sector’s recovery from the post-Soviet slump.
Russia’s nominal defense budget is about three percent of gross domestic product. It spent about $14 billion on the military last year and raised spending to $18 billion in 2005.
http://defensenews.com/story.php?F=648955&C=europe
By *******, MOSCOW
Russia’s arms exports have hit a ceiling because of insufficient investment in the defense industry, the country’s top exporter said Feb. 9.
Russia exported a record $5.7 billion in arms and military hardware last year, 80 percent of it to China and India, said Rosoboronexport head Sergei Chemezov.
“It’s clear that further growth is impossible without serious investment ... We’ve reached a ceiling,” he told Itar-Tass news agency. “Construction bureaus have great new inventions and promising projects — but they don’t have the money to turn ideas into cold steel.”
Russia’s arms industry, a core contributor to the national economy during the Cold War, shrank in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union left the state controlled business without substantial government funding.
Production and exports picked up under President Vladimir Putin, but sales were a fraction of what they were in Soviet times.
“Although Russian arms and military hardware are competitive on the global market, we are still mainly talking about modified products designed in the late 1970s and early 1980s,” Chemezov said.
Producers have long been asking government to allocate funds for research into next-generation technology, especially for strategic rocket forces and the navy.
Fighter jets make up about two-thirds of Russia’s arms exports but the fragmented nature of the industry has held back the sector’s recovery from the post-Soviet slump.
Russia’s nominal defense budget is about three percent of gross domestic product. It spent about $14 billion on the military last year and raised spending to $18 billion in 2005.
http://defensenews.com/story.php?F=648955&C=europe