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Russia to sky-rocket its military imports
Published: 15 June, 2010, 21:19
Edited: 09 September, 2010, 20:34
TAGS: Arms, Russia, Europe, Russia and the global economy, Prime Time Russia
Russia may spend more than €10 billion on weapons from Europe and Israel over the next 5 years.
Experts at a Moscow-based research institute predict Russians will see two €1.5 billion deals within the next couple of years.
The first will be a purchase of 4 Mistral-class warships, which are primarily helicopter carriers, from France. Prime Minister Putin negotiated the possible terms during his recent visit to the country.
The second deal will be 3,000 light-armoured LMV vehicles from an Italian firm, Iveco. They are used in hot spots to protect infantry from gunfire and bombs.
Other contracts are thought to be in the pipeline for the next 5 or 6 years, including a purchase of Israel air-space industry models of unmanned aircraft and a deal with another French firm for thermal imaging equipment, which in total will cost €10 billion.
Traditionally, Russia has been an exporter than rather an importer of weapons: currently the country is the second largest exporter of weapons in the world, covering 23% of the market. As for imports of arms, between 2005 and 2009, Russia was ranked as 80th in the world.
The reason for such change in tactics is an absence of its own technologies that would enable Russia to build the Mistral-class warships or, for example, complex military electronics. It will take years to develop such technologies, so Russian authorities decided to purchase it and, at the same time, maintain the high level of exports.
“This is absolutely normal,” Puslan Pukhov from the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies told RT. “After the end of the Cold War, all the countries of the world are not only exporting the weapons, but also importing them – like the US. There is no single country which is capable of producing good equipment for itself. Sometimes other countries produce excellent equipment and it is much cheaper to buy it than to develop it.”
All this is part of a broader plan by President Medvedev to upgrade 30% of the country’s arms by 2015.
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10 billion really isn't that much. Russia will spend around 600 billion dollars on it's armed forces in the same amount of time, so out of the total it really isn't that much. Also the reporter is wrong, Russia is not buying the Mistral carriers because it 'doesn't have the technology' but rather because it is cheaper. France offered 400 million per carrier whereas in Russia the same would cost 700 million, nothing to do with tech. Russia is procuring Israeli UAVs for the same reason. Domestic made ones such as the Dozor-600 are more expensive, and once again has nothing to do with tech. Overall I think it's a great idea. Russia is almost completely self sufficient, but importing a few key technologies will make our armed forces more invincible. Slava Rossiya, Slava Pobeda!
Nikita, Good comment, but think also about capacity and timeline. Russia needs to beef up fast and we know it. There is additionally a great side effect, that of economic cooperation, which in itself is a driver for peace and a world community. 10 billion is small beer for us, but the intangible value of goodwill is a highly leveraged dividend. Isolation is actually an expensive policy in the long run in a community.