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Rosoboronexport to Find Alloyed Happiness
Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport, which already produces cars, titanium and steel as well, has chosen one more market – composite materials. Rosoboronexport general director Sergey Chemezov wrote a letter dated March 14 to Federal Industry Agency head Boris Aleshin proposing the establishment of “an integrated structure managed by Rosoboronexport for the consolidation of the assets of production enterprise and developers of composite materials remaining in state ownership.”
Chemezov said that “a critical situation is arising with provision of composite materials for the mass production of weapons and military equipment” and makes reference to Western experience of cooperation between composite materials producers such as carbon fibers and the aircraft industry.
Analysts approve with Chemezov's proposal. “We have practically lost the ability to maker them,” said general director of the Infomost consulting firm Boris Rybak. “It's one of those areas where the string arm of the state is needed.” The demand for those materials is almost exclusively in the military sector. “Demand from Russian civilian aircraft construction is zero today,” Rybak said. “But, in the military, particularly in jet fighters, it is great – up to 30 percent of a fighter glider. The volume of the market can be calculated in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Vladimir Brakovsky, deputy general director and deputy general designer for the MiG Corp. confirmed that composite materials are used extensively in new military planes and in the design of future planes. He said that about 30 percent of the components in the MiG-AT training craft are made of composite materials and about 15 percent of the surface of the MiG-29K.
Analysts see the formation of a new industrial holding by Rosoboronexport as a continuation of its function to reform the Russian military-industrial complex. A helicopter building holding was formed around Rosoboronexport subsidiary Oboronprom in 2002 that now embraces seven enterprises. Rosoboronexport is also planning to consolidate assets into a holding to manufacture airplane engines.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 28, 2007
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