Arms

Russian Military Cooperation: Three-Prong Approach

Traditionally the Russian military cooperation was considered as one-prong approach: the sale of Russian made military hardware to foreign countries with minimum purchase level of foreign equipment like thermal vision equipment (by THALES). Today in the frame of ongoing military reform in the Russian Army much more often the military cooperation is assessed as two-prong approach with deviation towards the purchase not only equipment but technologies and military hardware itself. The shining example of it is the ongoing negotiations on the Mistral (the Mistral (L9013) is an amphibious assault ship a type of helicopter carrier of the French Navy).

Missiles over Hindustan

The international community has always marvelled at the energy with which Indian scientists, software and hardware experts in weapons systems have been moving on, overtaking and sometimes even surpassing achievements of the leading world powers. This is well illustrated by the indigenously developed nuclear weapons and rather modern rocket industry. The majority of missile-related projects for the Ministry of Defence of India are run under the so called Integrated Guided Missile Development Program focused on the development and series production of several missile weapon types including various-range ballistic missiles.

KBP-designed modernized fighting compartment of the BMP-2 - an efficient way of upgrading armoured vehicles

At present, the development level of armoured vehicles signifies to a large extent the military potential of the country's land forces. Infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) are the most widely-used type of the land forces' hardware. Constant upgrade of the combat vehicles fleet is performed by means of developing novel combat assets and modernization of existing armoured vehicles.

The service life of the armoured vehicles is rather lengthy, amounting to 30 -40 years. Many countries of the world are retrofitting the majority of their combat vehicles. The US is currently refurbishing its Bradley M2A2 IFV up to the M2A3 configuration.

The Russian-made BMP-2 IFV being the main CV of the land forces in many countries was put into service in 1980 and appeared to be superior to the majority of its foreign counterparts in terms of combat characteristics. Currently, the BMP-2 still complies with the modern requirements as regards its armour protection and riding performance.

Analysis of current status and developmental tendencies of armament and fire control systems suggests BMP-2's weapon system lagging behind the modern state of the art as regards several combat characteristics:

Russian Multipurpose Armored Vehicles

The point, that the use of infantry units during a warfare even without chemical or bacteriological weapon is going to be diminished, obtains a wide circulation not only on bush-league forums but even among some professionals. However, the last local conflicts, for instance in Georgia, show that Infantry remains the most all purpose branch of the Armed Forces which is capable effectively fight against foe's infantry units as well as small guerrilla units. Moreover, the infantry units shall become an absolute obstacle for mechanized units. To full fill the mentioned tasks an infantry unit is supposed to have superiority in fire power and last but not least modern attached armored vehicles

Buk Air Defense Missile System: Old Friends are Best

Various modifications of the Buk air defense missile system have been in service in various countries for over 30 years. Why so long? First, the Buk is being constantly improved to be always up-to-date. Second, it proved to be a reliable system working in severe conditions without any problems. Third, the Buk can be easily integrated in air defense and aviation combat control systems.

Fourth generation Non-Nuclear Submarines (NNS) in struggle for markets

In 1980s the two world powers - the USSR and the USA - got down to design of the fourth generation of the non-atomic submarines which differ from their predecessors on higher combat effectiveness achieved by implementation of the latest achievements in nuclear engineering hydrodynamics, weapons, construction materials, stealthiness, submarine acoustics and not acoustic means of submarine detection, automatic control systems, communication etc. As a result such submarines as "Seawolf" (entered the service in 1997) and "Virginia" (entered the service in 2004) multi-purpose submarines as well as Project-885 and Project-955 Russian nuclear propulsions (their entering the service of the Naval forces is expected in 2008-09), the French "Barracuda" nuclear submarine (the forerunner was laid down in 2007) and the British "Ascute" (2009) appeared.

RUSSIA’S ARMS EXPORT – HIGHER THAN EVER

In 2008 Russia's weapons export abroad exceeded $8.35 billion, $800 million increase from the previous year. Russia's President Dmitry Medvevev, addressing a meeting of the Commission on Military-Technical Co-operation, expressed his satisfaction with these figures, the highest ever in Russia's history.