Indo-Russia transport aircraft deal may collapse

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News


Moscow, Aug 28: The India-Russia multi-billion deal on developing a multi-role military transport aircraft may fall through because of bureaucratic delays, a newspaper report said here.

''Agreed to during President Vladimir Putin's visit to India, the schedule for preparing documents to begin developing the military transport plane MTA (Multirole Transport Aircraft) has been knocked off course, and the Indians are thinking about an alternative to the Russian plane,'' Vedomosti wrote.

The paper said the president of the Irkut Corporation Oleg Demchenko called the situation critical.

''The bureaucrats have messed up the things, so that for two years we have been unable to conclude an inter-governmental agreement,'' Demchenko said, adding that Russia may lose this project, with India deciding to develop the plane in collobaration with the Brazilian corporation Embraer, Italy's Alenia, or Spanish CASA.

A source in the Russian Defence Ministry told the paper that Russian Air Force had taken a ''passive view'' of the programme, and the lack of clear signals from the command that it is planning to buy a large numbers of the aircraft contributed most to the Indian's scepticism.

''All of which may lead to a situation in which Russia loses what little it has of transport aircraft building, because the MTA is the only project of this type which can secure financing from a foreign partner, and the plane itself still claims a unique niche in world markets and, should it be developed, could be sold to third countries,'' the paper quoted Konstantin Makiyenko, an expert with the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies as saying.

If India turns its back on Russia, Embraer would gladly take Irkut's place.

''A few months ago it presented a project for a similar plane, the C-390. As a result, bureaucrats and the military will not only kill the multi-billion project but could leave Russia's Air Force without an aircraft it so badly needs, because the An-12 will soon be written off,'' Makiyenko added.


UNI

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