Russia eyes $12 bln MiG fighter sales by 2020
18 June 2007
MOSCOW - Russian warplane maker MiG said on Monday it planned to sell 350 of its new generation fighters for about $10-12 billion by 2020 as it breaks into new markets, according to Russian news agencies.
Aircraft make up almost half of Russias arms exports, with MiG and Sukhoi taking the lions share of those sales.
The modernised MiG-29, based on a classic Soviet design, has new navigation systems and new generation weapon systems.
By 2020, we plan the delivery of 350 modernised MiG-29s for about $10 billion to $12 billion, Vladimir Vypryazhkin, deputy head of marketing at MiG, was quoted by RIA news agency as saying at the Le Bourges air show outside Paris.
We are also having talks on modernising MiG-29s with countries in Latin America, southeast Asia and North Africa, Vypryazhkin said.
MiG, one of the jewels of Russias arms industry, is vying for a giant order from India, which wants to buy 126 combat aircraft to replace ageing MiGs and British Jaguar planes.
Russia, which has close trade ties with New Delhi, is pushing its cutting-edge MiG-35. Boeings F/A-18 Super Hornet and Lockheed Martins F-16 are also competing for the contract.
Vypryazhkin said MiGs order book was currently just under $4 billion, Itar-Tass reported.
Russian defence officials say they seek to boost arms sales to a record $7.5 billion in 2007 from $6.5 billion in 2006.
Russia lost a lucrative captive arms market with the collapse of the Warsaw Pact in the 1990s and the conversion of former pact members to NATO-standard arms systems. But Moscow has pushed hard to expand its sales outside Europe in recent years, competing hard with US and other leading manufacturers.
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