OREANDA-NEWS. August 21, 2007. The town of Zhukovsky, just outside Moscow, hosts the 8th International Aviation & Space Salon “MAKS-2007”. The Rosoboronexport State Corporation, the sole Russian state intermediary agency for export and import of military and dual-purpose products, is a general sponsor of  the Airshow.

MAKS enjoys a leading position in the ratings of the major world aviation forums and its prestige is constantly growing. This year the Airshow will bring together 787 exhibitors including 540 Russian companies and 247 foreign companies from 39 countries, which is by one third more if compared with MAKS'2005. Such aviation powers as Germany, France, the USA are traditional participants of the Airshow. One of the most significant events at MAKS'2007 is Chinese aviation industry comeback. All these facts prove the attractiveness of the Russian market for the foreign major aircraft and equipment manufacturers.

Traditionally Rosoboronexport is responsible for the activity of the major part of the foreign delegations during MAKS Airshow as well as other similar exhibitions held in Russia. This year delegations from approximately 100 countries will take part in the exhibition.

MAKS'2007 presents a number of Russian and foreign aircraft and space novelties. Among the Russian ones are two MiG-family aircraft - the newest MiG-35 fighter and MiG-29K ship-borne multirole fighter aircraft for Indian Navy. Su-35 super-maneuverable multi-role fighter and Su-32 fighter-bomber will take part in the flying display.

Russian aerobatic teams Russkie Vityazi (the Russian Knights) and Strizhi (the Swifts) as well as the traditional participant of MAKS Airshow Patrole de France have prepared a breath-taking show. For the first time in MAKS history pilots from Lipetsk Flight Crew Combat Training and Cross-Training Centre will demonstrate the perfection of the Russian aircraft in a maneuvering dogfight starring 4 Su-27 fighters. 

In the recent years the aircraft market is on the rise. The average international turnover of military aircraft amounts to $25-27 bln annually. Moreover the growth tendency remains. The status of Russia on the world aircraft market is quite stable. The number of Rosoboronexport partners keeps increasing. The current stock of orders of the Corporation is able to busy aircraft and equipment manufacturers for the next 5-7 years. In 2007 the volume of concluded agreements on aircraft delivery through Rosoboronexport has totaled $2,5 bln.

MiG- and Su-family aircraft make up the core of Russian aircraft export. Su-family fighters were delivered to India, China, Venezuela, Indonesia to form the backbone of the national air force. On the eve of MAKS'2007 Malaysian Air Force received 6 aircraft as a part of the agreement on purchase of 18 Su-30 fighters.

The successful promotion of MiG-35 multirole front-line fighter to the highly-competitive Indian market proves the competitiveness of MiG aircraft. Indian pilots have already got accustomed to MiG fighters and prize flight, combat and technical performance of the Russian aircraft. Mig-family aircraft make up almost 70% of Indian Air Force fleet.

Russian aircraft manufacturers are to present the newest projects to the international market i.e. Su-35 fighter, Su-32 fighter-bomber, Yak-130 combat trainer. The promotion of the aircraft abroad has already begun. The development of new technologies in particular of the light transport military aircraft come to the end. Buoyancy in the sphere of after-sale service, modernization and flight simulators delivery is expected.

Rosoboronexport has drastically extended Russian military aircraft sales geography by delving into the markets of Latin America, North Africa and South-East Asia. The latest export contracts on the delivery of Russian aircraft to Venezuela have become a genuine breakthrough. Before starting to purchase Russian-made Su-30 and helicopters Caracas maintained military-technical cooperation only with the Western states.

In the overall volume of Russian defense export the share of anti-aircraft defense systems sales is constantly growing: from 6% in 2004 to 11% in 2006. With the successful completion of the 2007 plan they will amount to 13%.

The stock of Rosoboronexport orders for anti-aircraft defense systems amounts to $5,2 billion which is approximately one-third of the total stock of orders of the Corporation. Such progress has been made for the first time in the recent years. By the year 2012 implementation of a range of concluded contracts including the delivery of Russian state-of-the-art air defense system "Favorit" is expected.

Within the last five years there has been essential growth of the customers' interest towards the modernization of the earlier delivered Russian air defense systems whose combat qualities don't yield and in most cases even surpass their foreign counterparts (including "cost-efficiency" criteria). Russian air defense systems are remarkable for their unique engineering and technical solutions. Traditional partners – China and Middle East countries – are among the main purchasers. Rather intensively Rosoboronexport cooperates with Middle East, some states of South-East Asia, North and South Americas.

Russia has always been one of the few countries to independently develop and produce a whole range of air defense systems. Rosoboronexport offers all the potential buyers the most up-to-date and unique systems such as S-300PMU2 "Favorit", S-300VM "Antey-2500", Buk-M2E, Tor-M1 (Tor-M2 in perspective), Tunguska-M1, etc. Good openings in promotion to foreign arms-markets have the system of radioelectronic warfare. 

Potential customers are highly interested in such long-range air-defense systems as S-300VM "Antey-2500" which is the only air defense system in the world which is able to repulse all the types of air attack. Independent parts of S-300VM can be integrated into medium-range air-defense system Buk-M2E by customer's request.

Being the world’s leading space technology power, Russia also presents its latest achievements in the areas of information technology, communications, and space exploration. Rosoboronexport’s transactions connected with space technologies and associated services are steadily gaining importance as regards its cooperation with foreign partners.  Contracts on putting into the near-Earth orbit of space vehicles for the United Kingdom, Italy, Nigeria, Republic of Korea, Turkey, Germany, Sweden, and some other countries, have been fulfilled successfully.   Rosoboronexport’s experts can provide detailed reference data on the entire fleet of Russian space vehicles of light, medium and heavy-lift classes.

Rosoboronexport expresses confidence that the 8th International Aviation & Space Salon “MAKS-2007” will provide essential impulse to the further promoting Russian military-technical cooperation with foreign states.

Sergey Chemezov, Director General of the Rosoboronexport State Corporation: "The MAKS 2007 Airshow has always been one of the important marketing tools, one of the deciding factors of the commercial progress of the Russian military-technical cooperation with foreign countries, that mostly depends on the activity of Rosoboronexport".