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World Jewish News
Russian Ministry of Defence to Buy Israeli Pilotless Planes
07.04.2009
The Ministry of Defence of Russia has decided which Pilotless planes it will purchase for its needs in Israel, announced the Kommersant newspaper on Tuesday, April 7.
According to the publication, Russia intends to purchase from the Israeli company "Israel Aerospace Industries" three of the near- and medium-range systems for the amount of 50 million USD.
The sum of the deal is not big, but this is the first transaction of this kind, and in the opinion of experts, not the quantity is important, but the fact of the turn of Russia's defence industry towards foreign suppliers.
The intention to purchase Israeli pilotless planes was initially announced in November 2008 by the Chief of General Staff, General Nikolay Makarov during his speech before the State Duma Committee on Defence.
As mentioned by the "Kommersant", domestic pilotless planes are being developed by a dozen Russian companies, but Russia has no serious achievements in this industry yet. "The Defense Ministry has allocated 1 billion rubles into the development of pilotless planes, but, unfortunately, a normal vehicle has not been created thus far," said General Popovkin a month ago. The Russian unmanned fleet is hopelessly outdated, and this was amply demonstrated last summer during the war in South Ossetia.
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