During the ARMY-2023 International Military-Technical Forum which concluded Sunday at the Patriot Exhibition and Convention Center of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the Russian Ministry of Defense signed and handed over 400 billion rubles worth of state contracts to defense industries at the Forum.
Lieutenant General Anatoly Gulyaev, Head of the Main Armaments Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces clarified that under these state contracts the Russian Armed Forces will receive more than 2.5 thousand of newly produced weapons and special equipment, as well as more than 1.8 million of different types of ammunition (missiles, projectiles, mines etc.).
Rosoboronexport signed a number of contracts with unspecified foreign customers for the amount of about $600 million. For comparison: in 2022, at the Army forum, Rosoboronexport signed contracts worth of $400 million. In total, in all previous years, while participating in the Army Forum, Rosoboronexport signed contract documents worth more than $3 billion also creating serious groundwork for concluding new contracts.
Besides, at the Army-2023 forum Russia’s state-controlled special exporter conducted presentations for more than 30 foreign delegations and reached agreements on industrial cooperation which includes joint production of Kalashnikov assault rifles, armored vehicles, guided missiles on the territory of customers, as well as the installation of Russian unmanned combat modules of various calibers on the partners’ chassis.
Alexander Mikheev, Director General of Rosoboronexport in his report to the Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu noted that special Exporter’s orderbook reaches about $50 billion. 75% of which is occupied by products for the Air Force and Air Defense.
The first days of Forum demonstrated that participants and professional visitors had shown keen interest in battle-proven weapons. Alexander Mikheev put emphasis that Russian weapons displayed at the Army Forum have a successful track record on the battlefield.
“In 2023, as part of its exhibit, Rosoboronexport has allocated a separate place for displaying such weapons. We’ll be showing our partners aircraft, air defense and electronic warfare systems, armored vehicles and tanks, artillery, unmanned aerial vehicles and counter-UAV systems, small arms and combat gear and telling them in detail about the experience of their use in combat within information provided by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation,” CEO of Russia’s special exporter said.
“The presented products have undergone necessary upgrades and have been retrofitted taking into account feedback from the zone of the special military operation,” he added.
Among most demanded products there is the Pantsir S1 gun-missile ADS which has proved itself as the most efficient weapon against various drones. The system was developed by the KBP design bureau n.a.Academician Shipunov, the High Precision Weapons (HPW) subsidiary.
During ARMY-2023 forum the representatives of HPW holding informed the media on the final stage of testing a new modification of the Pantsir-S complex - Pantsir-SM-SV specially intended for ground and airborne troops. “The complex will have two types of anti-aircraft guided missiles and have an enlarged kill zone,” Head of the tactical air defense of the Russian Armed Forces Alexander Leonov said earlier in an interview with the Russian Defense Ministry newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda.
The Head of Rosoboronexport made it clear that the Army forum plays a huge role in the development of military-technical cooperation of Russia with foreign states thanks to the opportunity to demonstrate new models of Russian weapons and defense equipment to partners.
By 2030 the share of new samples of Russian products is expected to prevail over currently produced items in the proportion of 90% to 10%. “Among the growth leaders in the short and medium term, we expect to see the 5th generation Su-57E fighter, the Il-76MD-90A(E) military transport aircraft, the Ka-52E reconnaissance and attack helicopter, the Vityaz air defense system, the Pantsir-S1M air defense missile system, frigate pr.22356, TOS-2 and others,” Alexander Mikheev stressed.
According to Mikheev, in the coming years Rosoboronexport plans to introduce to the international market up to 50 new items, including products upgraded on the basis their combat experience. “These will be fundamentally new solutions that have shown their high efficiency on the battlefield,” he said on the sidelines the Forum.
Every year Rosoboronexport expands its exposition at Army forums. This year more than 200 samples were demonstrated at the indoor pavilion and 16 items at the outdoor display. Some of the them were showcased for the first time, like elements of the artillery unit’s reconnaissance and fire control complex based on the Planshet-A system which is a product of VNII Signal, subsidiary of the High Precision Weapons holding. (Yury Laskin, Laguk-Media; Photo: High Precision Weapons Holding displayed Planshet-A automated artillery fire control system © Yury Laskin)
