MOSCOW, August 29 (RIA Novosti) – More than $12 billion in contracts have been signed at the MAKS-2013 international air and space show near Moscow, a sum exceeding the $10 billion record set in 2009.
United Aircraft Corporation president Mikhail Pogosyan said his company alone had signed at least $12 billion worth of contracts at the MAKS show this year, compared with $7.5 billion last year.
Russia’s state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport has signed five new collaboration agreements with Italy’s Finmeccanica industrial group and OMA SUD aircraft maker, and inked a contract with Cameroon for Mi-17 helicopters. Russia’s MiG fighter jet maker has clinched an agreement with India to establish a servicing center for its aircraft in the Asian country.
The Russian Defense Ministry has signed a comprehensive $3 billion agreement with the UAC on maintenance and servicing of its aircraft, avionics and equipment, and signed a $50 million contract for a unique electronic warfare system.
The UTair airline has signed a contract with Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Co. for six long-haul Superjets, worth $217.2 million.
Warplanes
On Tuesday, the UAC and the Defense Ministry signed a 80 billion ruble ($2.5 billion) contract for the servicing of aircraft, avionics and related equipment. The contract was signed in the presence of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
Corporation head Pogosyan said his company’s current portfolio of orders for the Defense Ministry was for over 300 planes, while the total volume of orders as part of the state arms procurement program would be about 600 aircraft.
Under a separate deal, the Defense Ministry will receive three modernized A-50U early-warning-and-control planes this year, said Vartan Shakhgedanov, deputy general designer at the Vega company, which produces the planes.
A contract for a fourth plane is expected to be signed shortly, he added.
Shakhgedanov also said the Defense Ministry would receive the first of the two advanced Tu-214ON planes equipped for the Open Skies international program, at the MAKS airshow. The contract for the two aircraft is worth 5 billion rubles ($150 million), he added.
The Defense Ministry currently uses four An-30 aircraft and one Tu-154MLK-1 under the Open Skies Agreement.
On Wednesday, the MiG fighter jet maker signed two additional contracts with India worth a total $55 million. 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.
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.
Civil Aviation
Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Co., the UTair airline and VEB Leasing signed a contract for the delivery of six Sukhoi Superjet-100LR planes, worth $217.2 million.
Deliveries of the 103-seat planes will start next year. The three companies previously signed a preliminary agreement for the delivery of 24 Superjets as the first stage of the implementation of a leasing agreement signed prior to that.
UTair is planning to operate the planes both on domestic flights (western Siberia and European Russia) and on flights to Europe.
The Superjet-100 (SSJ-100) is a short-to-medium-haul passenger aircraft developed by Sukhoi in collaboration with US and European aviation corporations including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace and Honeywell.
UTair and VEB Leasing also signed a memorandum of intent for the lease of 10 MS-21-300 airliners. Under the deal, the aircraft will be provided between 2018 and 2020. MS-21 aircraft, currently in development, are to replace all models of Tu-154 and Tu-134 aircraft, as well as the Yak-42 in Russia, with initial deliveries due to start in 2017.
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.
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.
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.
Helicopters
In a groundbreaking deal, Russia on Wednesday inked a deal to deliver Mi-17 military transport helicopters to Cameroon. The deal was signed by Cameroon’s Defense Ministry and Russia’s state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport, which is part of Russian Technologies.
It was not immediately clear how many helicopters Russia would deliver under the contract or when.
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” than its Western analogues, Pobezhimov said.
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