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Russian Planes Won’t Fly the British Skies
July 19, The Farnborough International Exhibition and Flying Display opens today in that London suburb. Russian planes will not take part in the airshow. Nonetheless, the Russian aviation business is counting on making competitive strides there in meetings with its foreign partners.
The Farnborough exhibition takes place in July of every other year. It was, until recently, one of the two most important shows of its type and competed successfully with the Le Bourge show, held in opposing years outside of Paris. The Le Bourge exhibition was considered the premiere showplace for civil aviation and cosmonautics, while Farnborough concentrated on military aviation. Farnborough-2002 was rather subdued, however, because of the worldwide crisis suffered by airplane builders after the events of September 11, 2001. Due to fears of terrorist acts, the airshow was severely reduced. Both exhibitors and visitors were disappointed as a result. The very existence of the exhibition was called into doubt.
Those dark predictions proved false, although Farnborough is not likely to return to the its high point of 2000, when 1200 exhibitors signed contracts worth a total of $52 billion. Farnborough now looks less like a world-class exhibition of new aviation technology, as Le Bourge still does, but more like a plain regional show, like the ILA in Berlin or MAKS near Moscow. Mainly European planes will take to the air at Farnborough. The United States has agreed to display only the long-familiar F/A-18F and F-15C fighter planes and the AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter.
No Russian planes at all will take part in the air display. Yury Koptev, director of the defense-industrial complex department of the Ministry of Industry and Energy said before the show that the Russian exhibit would be limited to nonmoving items and pavilion displays. “As a rule, an exhibition such as this is primarily for military technology. There is no sense in hauling equipment to England that has no market in the West,” he said. “We need to fly to India, Singapore, China, or to places where projects are being carried out and the possibilities of the equipment are already known,” he added. According to Koptev, flying just one Su-30 in the Farnborough show would have cost $1.5-2 million. “The Russian aircraft industry cannot afford that expense,” he said.
However, the refusal to demonstrate Russian air equipment is also related to fears of its seizure against claims made by the Swiss company Noga. After a similar incident in Le Bourge in 2001, Russian airplanes have not been seen at European exhibitions. Although Russia won the case with Noga in French courts in the spring of this year, and can now safely participate at Le Bourge, there are no guarantees against cases being brought to court in other European countries.
A British official recently stated, “We cannot guarantee against third-party suits. Such cases can only be decided in court.”
Russian enterprises can still benefit from the Farnborough exhibition. “Exhibitions of this kind allow us to hold many useful business meetings with our partners from around the world without spending time on long flights from one country to the next,” Sergey Nedoroslev, president of the Kaskol Group told Kommersant. “I spend 95% of my time at Farnborough in meetings and negotiations, and only 5% on watching flights,” he said. Aleksei Frolov, president of the Irkut corporation, said that participation in such exhibitions is “a big game.” “People meet and consider the possibility of future contracts and alliances. But sometimes the meetings are purely a formality to confuse the competition.”
Most Russian attendees will be spending their time at Farnborough in just such business and formal meetings. They do not foresee signing any major agreements. The big contract of Farnborough-2004 is obviously going to be that of the British defense ministry with the French company Thales for a new fleet of Watchkeeper pilotless intelligence gathering planes, for about 800 million pounds.
Russian Planes Won’t Fly the British Skies
The Farnborough International Exhibition and Flying Display opens today in that London suburb. Russian planes will not take part in the airshow. Nonetheless, the Russian aviation business is counting on making competitive strides there in meetings with its foreign partners.
The Farnborough exhibition takes place in July of every other year. It was, until recently, one of the two most important shows of its type and competed successfully with the Le Bourge show, held in opposing years outside of Paris. The Le Bourge exhibition was considered the premiere showplace for civil aviation and cosmonautics, while Farnborough concentrated on military aviation. Farnborough-2002 was rather subdued, however, because of the worldwide crisis suffered by airplane builders after the events of September 11, 2001. Due to fears of terrorist acts, the airshow was severely reduced. Both exhibitors and visitors were disappointed as a result. The very existence of the exhibition was called into doubt.
Those dark predictions proved false, although Farnborough is not likely to return to the its high point of 2000, when 1200 exhibitors signed contracts worth a total of $52 billion. Farnborough now looks less like a world-class exhibition of new aviation technology, as Le Bourge still does, but more like a plain regional show, like the ILA in Berlin or MAKS near Moscow. Mainly European planes will take to the air at Farnborough. The United States has agreed to display only the long-familiar F/A-18F and F-15C fighter planes and the AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter.
No Russian planes at all will take part in the air display. Yury Koptev, director of the defense-industrial complex department of the Ministry of Industry and Energy said before the show that the Russian exhibit would be limited to nonmoving items and pavilion displays. “As a rule, an exhibition such as this is primarily for military technology. There is no sense in hauling equipment to England that has no market in the West,” he said. “We need to fly to India, Singapore, China, or to places where projects are being carried out and the possibilities of the equipment are already known,” he added. According to Koptev, flying just one Su-30 in the Farnborough show would have cost $1.5-2 million. “The Russian aircraft industry cannot afford that expense,” he said.
However, the refusal to demonstrate Russian air equipment is also related to fears of its seizure against claims made by the Swiss company Noga. After a similar incident in Le Bourge in 2001, Russian airplanes have not been seen at European exhibitions. Although Russia won the case with Noga in French courts in the spring of this year, and can now safely participate at Le Bourge, there are no guarantees against cases being brought to court in other European countries.
A British official recently stated, “We cannot guarantee against third-party suits. Such cases can only be decided in court.”
Russian enterprises can still benefit from the Farnborough exhibition. “Exhibitions of this kind allow us to hold many useful business meetings with our partners from around the world without spending time on long flights from one country to the next,” Sergey Nedoroslev, president of the Kaskol Group told Kommersant. “I spend 95% of my time at Farnborough in meetings and negotiations, and only 5% on watching flights,” he said. Aleksei Frolov, president of the Irkut corporation, said that participation in such exhibitions is “a big game.” “People meet and consider the possibility of future contracts and alliances. But sometimes the meetings are purely a formality to confuse the competition.”
Most Russian attendees will be spending their time at Farnborough in just such business and formal meetings. They do not foresee signing any major agreements. The big contract of Farnborough-2004 is obviously going to be that of the British defense ministry with the French company Thales for a new fleet of Watchkeeper pilotless intelligence gathering planes, for about 800 million pounds.
Konstantin Lantratov
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