ZHUKOVSKY, August 28 (RIA Novosti) – Day 2 at the MAKS-2013 international air and space show just outside Moscow saw more contracts signed and important initiatives announced.
Warplanes
Russia’s MiG fighter jet maker has signed two additional contracts with India worth a total $55 million, the corporation said Wednesday. They are part of a general contract with India’s air force.
Under the first, $43 million contract, a servicing center will be established in India for maintenance and repair of Zhuk-ME on-board radars, MiG representatives said. The second, $12 million contract provides for the creation in India of a servicing center for modernized MiG-29UPG fighter jets.
Russia will deliver six MiG-29K Fulcrum “generation 4++” fighters to India this year as part of a 2010 contract for 29 planes worth $1.5 billion, MiG CEO Sergei Korotkov said at the MAKS-2013 international air and space show.
India currently has 21 aircraft. Under the contract, MiG is to deliver 29 planes before 2015, Korotkov said. Last year four aircraft were delivered and one has been delivered so far this year, he added.
Helicopters
In a groundbreaking deal, Russia is to deliver Mi-17 military transport helicopters to Cameroon, a spokesperson for Russian Technologies said Wednesday.
The deal was signed by Cameroon’s Defense Ministry and Russia’s state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport, which is part of Russian Technologies.
“This is the first contract as part of military technology collaboration between Russia and Cameroon,” Rosoboronexport CEO Anatoly Isaikin said in a statement. It was not immediately clear how many helicopters Russia would deliver under the contract or when.
In his statement, Rosoboronexport’s CEO explicitly identified expanding exports to countries in Africa as a priority, and said it is seeking to renew ties with Botswana, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea.
In February a Russian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and including the deputy director of the Russian Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation under Russia’s Defense Ministry traveled to Cameroon and held a series of meetings about bilateral cooperation.
Drones
Russia’s Defense Ministry will sign a contract with the Kazan-based Enix company for 34 short-range reconnaissance drones before the end of the year, Enix General Designer Valery Pobezhimov told RIA Novosti.
Deliveries of 17 Eleron-3SV complexes comprising 34 drones should start in the first quarter of next year, he said.
Eleron-3SV is a modernized unmanned aerial vehicle that was approved for service with the Russian Armed Forces earlier this year. The system is about “five times cheaper” compared to its Western analogues, Pobezhimov said.
Civil Aviation
Ukraine’s Antonov aircraft maker has handed over a third An-158 passenger airliner to Cuba and signed a contract for the delivery of three more, Ukraine’s UNIAN news agency reported Wednesday.
Ramon Martinez Echevarria, president of the Cuban Civil Aviation Corporation, thanked Russia’s leasing company, Ilyushin Finance Co., and the Antonov aircraft manufacturer for making the deal possible.
The delivery of the other three aircraft has been planned for next year, Echevarria said, adding that they would help boost the tourist flow to and from Cuba.
The An-158 is made by Ukraine, but about 60 percent of its components are Russian-produced, which is why Russia has an interest in facilitating such deals, Russia’s minister for industry and trade, Denis Manturov, told a group of aviation students in Moscow in February.
The aircraft also uses components that are French, German and US made, with the share of this last being under the 10 percent cutoff point that would prevent it being sold to Cuba under US sanctions.
Bombardier Q400 NextGen
Russian state corporation Rostec and Bombardier announced Wednesday that they had signed a letter of intent for the sale of 50 Q400 NextGen aircraft, The Wall Street Journal reported. The two companies also signed a memorandum of understanding to validate the opportunity to set up a Q400 NextGen final assembly line in Russia.
If definitive agreements are reached, a firm-order contract for 100 Q400 NextGen aircraft would be valued at around $3.39 billion, the WSJ said.
Alexei Fedorov, managing director of aviation projects at Rostec, hailed the agreements as “a landmark opportunity for the Q400 NextGen aircraft program.”
Mike Arcamone, president of Bombardier Commercial Aircraft, was quoted by the WSJ as saying the company had identified Russia as “key to our growth and sustainability.”
At present there are more than 120 Bombardier commercial aircraft in service in Russia and other the CIS states, Bombardier forecasts a market demand of about 400 aircraft in the region over the next two decades, the WSJ said.
Sustainable Aviation Fuels
Airbus and the Rostec Group-affiliated RT-Biotekhprom signed a collaboration deal to speed up the development and commercialization of sustainable fuels for aviation.
“The partnership is aimed at assessing suitable feedstocks to comply with ecological, economic and social sustainability criteria. The sustainability analysis will be managed by Airbus in close collaboration with RT-Biotekhprom,” Airbus said in a press release.
The partnership aims to develop a complete sustainable aviation fuel production capability in Russia, using only sustainable resources.
Airbus will provide support to RT-Biotekhprom in ensuring that the fuel produced meets international aviation standards, the company said.
“We are delighted to be working with our Russian partners RT-Biotekhprom,” said Christopher Buckley, executive vice president of sales at Airbus. “Sustainable fuels are a crucial part of the roadmap to meet the aviation industry’s ambitious CO2 targets.”
"The project will help us to improve the understanding of aviation Biofuels commercialization in Russia, identify the opportunities and challenges, and evaluate the possibility of social, economic, market and technology change and its cost, obstacles and challenges,” RT-Biothekhprom CEO Sergei Krayevoi said, according to the Airbus press release.
