#9
China Major Buyer of Russian Arms

MOSCOW, May 29 (Itar-Tass) - Russia attaches exceptional importance to its military-technological cooperation with China. Its annual profits from the sale weapons to China tops one billion U.S. dollars, which is almost one-fifth of the total trade turnover between the two countries. China is a major buyer of Russian armaments and its share in the Russian export of weapons adds up to forty per cent. Deliveries of Russian Su-27 and Su-30 planes are estimated at 5.8 billion U.S. dollars, 956e-type destroyers - 2.4 billion dollars, and anti-aircraft defense systems - at no less than 1.5 billion dollars.

Military-technological cooperation between the two countries was resumed in 1990 after a lengthy interval. China bought fifty Su-27 fighters, including thirty-eight single-seater Su-27SK and twelve double-seater Su-27UB planes, worth about 1.7 billion U.S. dollars, in the period from 1991 to 1997. In 1996, China bought a license to produce two hundred Su-27SK aircraft in the course of the next five years, without the right tore-export them. The cost of the deal is estimated at 2.5 billion U.S. dollars.

In the indicated period, China also got S-300PMU1 and Tor-M1 anti-aircraft complexes, four multipurpose diesel-electric submarines of the 877EKM class and two submarines of the 636 class.

Contracts were signed in 1995 on the delivery to China of "Smerch" multiple missile launchers, "Metis" and "Konkurs" anti-tank missile complexes, as well as rapid-firing shipboard artillery systems of the AK-630 class and "Kashtan" naval gun-and-missile complexes. According to some reports, China also got one hundred self-propelled "Nona-SVK" mortar systems.

China concluded in November 1997 a contract on the delivery of two 956E class destroyers of the "Sovremenny" type armed with "Moskit" supersonic anti-ship missiles. The total cost of the contract equals to about one billion U.S. dollars. Six Ka-28 deck anti-submarine helicopters were also delivered for those destroyers.

A contract, worth 1.5 billion U.S. dollars, was signed in 1999 for the delivery to China of forty multipurpose Su-30MKK double-seater fighters in the period from 2000 to 2001. Moreover, China got in 2001 ten double-seater Su-27UBK training fighters in keeping with the 1999 agreement on the delivery of twenty-eight Su-27UBK fighters on account of Russia's state debt. Eight of those machines were delivered in December 2000, and the remaining ten are to be handed over to China in 2002.

The Rosoboronexport Company, which is the principal exporter of Russian armaments, concluded a contract on May 3, 2002, for the delivery to the Chinese navy of eight diesel submarines of the 636 class (Kilo) armed with a "Club" missile complex. The contract is to be filled within the next five years. In expert opinion, eight submarines of this class, armed with "Club" complexes, may cost up to 1.5 billion U.S. dollars. Therefore, this deal will be the third or fourth largest Russian contract to export military hardware.

China is now gradually giving up the practice of buying ready-made combat systems and is beginning to purchase only their components. Contracts were concluded in the period from 2001 to 2002 on deliveries of aircraft engines, including some for fighters designed in China. Expansion of Russo-Chinese cooperation in the field of military technology will envisage a gradual transition from simple export trade to joint scientific research and development of new types of armaments and military hardware. Moreover, Russia and China may jointly compete for military contracts in third countries, especially on the African continent.

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