Russia’s military exports reach record-high level in 2006

19.02.2007

ABU-DHABI, February 19 (Itar-Tass) - Russia’s exports of military products reach a record-high level of 6.5 billion U.S. dollars over the whole period of military and technical cooperation, the head of the federal service for military and technical cooperation, Mikhail Dmitriyev, who led the Russian delegation at the IDEX arms exhibition in Abu-Dhabi, said on Monday.

The six-year export dynamics was 3.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2001, 4.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2002, 5.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2003, 5.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2004, 6.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2005 and 6.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2006.

Last year Russia exported its military products to 64 countries as against 57 countries in 2004 and 61 countries in 2005.

The share of aircraft is still high in Russia’s total military exports and it remained no less than 30 percent over the last years. In 2006 it amounted to 49.9 percent.

The share of naval equipment export that surged in 2005 reduced to 27.3 percent last year. The share of land component remained unchanged, while the share of anti-aircraft warfare increased to 9.2 percent.

“Experts of the federal service forecast Russia’s arms export may exceed 7 billion U.S. dollars in the short-term prospect,” Dmitriyev said.