Russian Expo Arms 2008 to showcase 500 companies - June, 2008

Russian Expo Arms 2008 to showcase 500 companies

June, 2008

About 500 domestic and foreign arms manufacturers will participate in an international arms exhibition to be held in the Urals Region next month, a local government official said on Wednesday. Russian Expo Arms 2008 on July 9-12 is the sixth biannual arms exhibition held in the town of Nizhny Tagil, considered the home of Russia's weapons industry, and is organized by the Federal Agency for Industry and the government of the Sverdlovsk Region. "Delegations from 47 countries, including Austria, Canada, France, Ghana and Ukraine, will participate in the exhibition at the former Soviet target range Staratel as guests and potential buyers," said Viktor Koksharov, the head of the Sverdlovsk Region government. He said 170 defense industry enterprises in the Urals are responsible for the manufacture of 70% of Russia's conventional weaponry. Rosoboronexport, Russia's state arms exporter, said the exhibition would focus on the development of light armored vehicles, artillery and multi launch rocket systems (MLRS). "Among those are the Msta-S self-propelled howitzer and a unique tank support combat vehicle [Russian acronym BMPT]," said Igor Sevastyanov, Rosoboronexport's deputy general director. The BMPT, dubbed the Terminator, is built on the basis of the most mass-produced T-72 battle tank. The new combat vehicle features enhanced armor protection and is equipped with powerful armament capable of destroying anti-tank capable ground and air targets and infantry, while operating in a common battle formation. Its main armament consists of two 30-mm 2A42 automatic cannons, a coaxially-mounted 7.62-mm PKTM machine gun with an electromechanical drive, and four launchers with laser-guided Attack-T anti-tank missiles. Russia has almost doubled annual arms exports since 2000 to almost $5 billion last year, becoming the world's second-largest exporter of conventional arms after the United States. Rosoboronexport earlier said that the country could export weaponry worth about $7.5 billion in 2008. Russia exports weapons to about 80 countries. Among the key buyers of its weaponry are China, India, Algeria, Venezuela, Iran, Malaysia and Serbia.

Source: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080625/112105566.html

Russia to sell six multi launch rocket systems to Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan has signed a $70 million contract with Russia to buy six Smerch multi launch rocket systems (MLRS), a Russian business daily said on Tuesday. Kommersant said that under the contract, the first major military-technical deal with Ashgabat in the past decade, the Smerch manufacturer, OAO Motovilikhinskiye Zavody, will deliver the first two systems before the end of this year and the other four next year. The manufacturer said it would also complete deliveries of Smerch systems to India in July under a $300 million contract. The plant previously supplied 30 Smerch systems to India, worth an estimated $450 million. The 300mm Smerch rocket has an effective range of 70-90km. One rocket cluster contains 72 submunitions, each weighing 2 kg. Its impact angle is strictly vertical: 90 degrees. A cone of such "meteorites" easily pierces the turrets and top shielding of armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, self-propelled gun mounts, and even tank transmission compartments where the armor is not thick.

Source: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080624/111892212.html

11 New Topol Missiles to Enter Service

The Strategic Missile Forces will speed up the commissioning of Topol-M missiles and have 11 missile complexes at the ready by the end of the year. Two of them will be stationary, and the remaining missiles will be mobile, according to ARM-TASS, which cited chief of the missile forces Gen. Col. Nikolay Solovtsov. The stationary launch facilities will be located at the 60th Missile Division in Tatishchevo, Saratov Region. They will bring the total of stationary launch facilities to 50. Topol-M complexes are equipped with improved RS-2PM2 intercontinental ballistic missiles with split warheads that make them practically impossible to intercept. They have a range of 10,000 km. The mobile Topol-M launch facilities will be based on MZKT-79221 tractors equipped with 800-hp. diesel engines with a maximum speed of 45 km/h. and maximum travelling distance of 500 km.

Source: http://www.kommersant.com/p-12729/weapons_arsenal/

Russia to lease 'deadly' nuclear attack sub to India in 2009:

Russia has begun dock trials of a nuclear submarine, which will be leased in 2009 to the Indian navy for 10 years, a prominent Indian daily reported. Financed partly by India under a secret deal signed with Russia in January 2004, the 12,000-ton Akula-II class nuclear-powered attack submarine has been built at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur shipyard in Russia, and will be commissioned with the Indian navy as INS Chakra. "The submarine's sea-based trials will follow after that," Times of India quoted an anonymous Indian defense source as saying. "We expect the submarine to join the Indian navy in the second half of 2009." Akula II class vessels are considered the quietest and deadliest among Russian nuclear-powered attack submarines. According to various reports, India is currently building three domestically-designed nuclear submarines under a top-secret Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) program but needs to give its navy first-hand experience in nuclear submarine operations, deployment and maintenance prior to the deployment of domestic submarines. "Our sailors... have been undergoing training in Russia to operate INS Chakra for the last two-three years. Once we get it, it will be the ideal platform to train future crews for the ATVs," the Indian source said. The nuclear submarine leased by Russia will not be equipped with long-range cruise missiles due to international restrictions on missile technology proliferation, but India may later opt to fit it with domestically designed long-range nuclear-capable missiles. At present, India operates 16 conventional diesel submarines and awaits six French-Spanish Scorpene class diesel attack submarines, to be delivered between 2012 and 2017, but plans to deploy at least three nuclear submarines armed with long-range strategic missiles by 2015. The first of the three domestic nuclear submarines is expected to begin sea trials by mid-2009. India previously leased a Charlie-I class nuclear submarine from the Soviet Union from 1988 to 1991.

Source: http://en.rian.ru/world/20080704/113140264.html