SIGHTINGS



Russia Has $2 Billion
SU-30 Fighter Sale To China
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=83868
8-7-99
 

 
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian state arms dealer Rosvooruzheniye has a deal to sell China Sukhoi fighter aircraft worth about $2.0 billion, the governor of the region where the planes are made was quoted as saying on Friday. Russia's Kommersant business daily quoted Khabarovsk Governor Viktor Ishaev as saying a deal for 60 SU-30 planes had been sealed after nearly four years of negotiations. Kommersant quoted unnamed sources as saying the deal was preliminary.
 
Both Rosvooruzheniye and the Moscow-based Sukhoi design bureau declined to confirm or deny that a deal had been signed.
 
The SU-30 is a fighter equipped with advanced "thrust vectoring" engine nozzles which give the craft great maneuverability. One SU-30 crashed in June at the Paris airshow when the tail of the aircraft hit the ground during a loop.
 
China paid Russia $2 billion for 22 SU-27 jets in 1996.
 
Russia's arms industry has been hit since the breakup of the Soviet Union by a collapse in domestic demand because the struggling armed forces' procurement budget has plummeted. Russia also lost export markets in the ex-Soviet bloc.
 
Rosvooruzheniye is keen to boost exports and especially to conquer markets in the Middle and Far East.





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