TRADE-RUSSIA: Arms Exports Hit a Record High

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Sergei Blagov

MOSCOW, Jul 1 2002 (IPS) - Russian arms exports have reached a record high to make it the largest exporter of weapons.

Russian arms exports are now 12 per cent of the world trade in weapons, says Yuri Khozyainov, deputy chairman of Russia’s state committee on military technical co-operation, a government arms export regulator. Third World countries are Russia’s biggest client.

Russia surpassed the U.S. as the biggest exporter of weapons last year, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Russia exported 4.97 billion dollars worth of arms last year compared to 4.56 billion dollars worth of arms sold by the U.S., SIPRI says in a report on last year’s sales.

SIPRI places a higher figure on Russian exports than the official Russian figure of 4.4 billion dollars. Ruslan Pukhov, an expert at the Centre for Analysis of Strategy and Technology, a Moscow-based think tank, says SIPRI is going by the military value of the exports while the official Russian figure is a total of contract prices.

About 60 per cent of Russia’s arms exports are sale of military aircraft, Khozyainov says. China, India, Yemen, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are major buyers of Russian aircraft. This year India could replace China as Russia’s top client, Khozyainov says.

Russia began delivery of a batch of Su-30 MKI fighters to India June 23. The first two were shipped to India on board a Russian cargo plane. Russia is due to deliver ten of these fighters this year, while another 22 are to be supplied next year.

Russia has already delivered 18 Su-30K fighters, an earlier version. These will be upgraded to MKI by 2004 with simultaneous production of 140 fighters by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in India. The production under licence in India is worth 3.3 billion dollars to Russia.

The Su-30 MKI is equivalent to the Su-37 under development for the Russian air force. It has an edge over the Su-30 MKK version being supplied to China.

India has equipped almost two-thirds of its armed forces with Russian hardware. India bought weapons worth 3.5 billion dollars from Russia between 1990 and 1996. New agreements cover sale of Russian weapons to India worth another four billion dollars over the next three years. As tensions between India and Pakistan run high, India is looking for new weapons, which Russia is keen to supply.

The Baltiisky shipyard in St. Petersburg is now working on a contract worth one billion dollars to deliver three Krivak-class frigates to India by 2003. Another plant is undertaking upgradation of India’s ageing fleet of MiG-21 fighters.

India’s shopping list also includes the S-300V air defence complex, lease of four Tu-22M3 bombers and two Amur-class submarines.

At the same time, China continues to buy huge amounts of Russian-made weapons. Last year Russia delivered an estimated 30 Su-30 MKK and ten Su-27 UBK fighters to China.

According to recent reports China is negotiating purchase of eight Project 636 Kilo submarines from Russia in a 1.6 billion dollar deal. Russia has also agreed to build two more Sovremenny-class destroyers for the Chinese navy for an estimated 1.4 billion dollars.

Russian weapons have for long been seen as reliable and relatively cheap. But exports suffered from a reputation of poor service and unreliable supply of spares. Russian manufacturers are now improving services for buyers. Russia is looking at a new spares market worth 250 million dollars a year.

In a bid to give manufacturers greater freedom, President Vladimir Putin give them a free hand last year to sell spares for weapons supplied. Export of spare parts was earlier controlled by the arms export agency Rosoboronexport.

Several allies of the Cold War era are now looking to help from Russia to modernise their armies. Almost all weapons used by the Vietnamese and the North Korean military are now obsolete. In recent years Vietnam has bought 12 Su-27 fighters for about 300 million dollars.

The North Korean military has about 2,300 Russian-made tanks, 10,000 pieces of artillery, 50 ships and 23 submarines which need to be modernised. North Korean defence minister Vice-Marshal Kim Il-Chol visited Moscow last year to sign an agreement on defence co-operation with Russia.

In October last year Iranian defence minister Ali Shamkhani visited Russia to sign a framework agreement on military co-operation and for supply of Russian weapons worth about 400 million dollars a year.

Khozyainov sees “propaganda campaigns to discredit Russian arms as well as political and economic pressures to force developing countries not to import Russian armaments.” But Russia is determined, he said, to fight these “dirty tricks” and keep up its lucrative weapons sales.