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China and India Make Smerch Rockets
Rosoboronexport is preparing to transfer the technology for the production of elements of the Smerch multiple launch rocket system to China and to give India a license for its production. Those plans are discussed in a letter from general director of the Perm Powder Mill Alexander Melentyev to Governor of Perm Territory Oleg Chirkunov dated June 23, 2008. According to the letter, the mill concluded an agreement to manufacture and deliver equipment for the production of SND-100 rocket fuel to the Splav enterprise in Tula. Splav in turn would resell the equipment and technology to China under a 2004 contract to transfer the license for the multiple launch rocket system.
“If the deal is implemented, China will have the ability to produce solid-fuel rocket engines for various purposes and will become a competitor for Russia on the world missile technology market,” the letter notes. The letter said that Splav was also negotiating with India and proposed to provide that country with documentation and equipment to allow the Indians to make their own rockets. Melentyev is currently being held in investigative custody in a criminal case involving the embezzlement of 17.2 million rubles from the powder mill.
The Smerch multiple launch rocket system has a 90-km. range. It was developed by Splav and is mass produced by OAO Motovilikhinskie Plants. Perm Powder Mill is a subcontractor. Motovilikhinskie has delivered 38 Smerch complexes to India this year on a contract dated December 31, 2005, worth $450 million. In 2010, another 24 complexes are to be delivered to India under a 2007 contract.
At the end of the 1990s, China developed its own inferior analog of the Smerch, the A-100. It will be able to market the multiple launch rocket systems. India has had little success with military equipment production, and has had problems producing Russian Su-30MKI fighter jets and T-90S tanks, English Hawk training jets and French Scorpene submarines.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 22, 2008
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Photo: Dmitry Azarov
