“Our specialists are already in France and have begun dismantling the [electronic] equipment. All of this equipment, obviously, will be used in future projects in our shipbuilding industry,” Borisov told journalists.
Borisov did not rule out that the buyers of the two ships could request Russia to re-equip the ships with the same electronics after purchase.
“Perhaps the future buyer will return to this issue and request to use this equipment for themselves,” Borisov added.
Meanwhile, a spokesman from the system developers said that Russian electronic equipment currently being dismantled from the Mistral-class helicopter carriers cannot be sold as a single lot to the new owners of the vessels.
“The permits for the re-export of this equipment would take a month and a half or two months, and the process of adapting the systems, communications, and programming for a foreign buyer could take a year to a year and a half,” the spokesman from the system developers, the United Instrument Construction Corporation, said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that Moscow would not oppose the sale of two French-made Mistral-class helicopter carriers to Egypt as the new deal respects Russian interests.
France and Russia terminated a $1.3-billion contract last month following Hollande’s suspension of the warships’ deliveries late last year over the Ukrainian conflict.
Paris repaid Moscow around $1 billion as compensation for the breached contract.
