Thursday, Nov 17, 2005
Russia to help build nuclear submarine
Vladimir Radyuhin
Defence Ministers meet at summit for military-technical cooperation -------------------------------------------------------------------------- a.. Plans for building fifth-generation fighter aircraft on the anvil a.. Several thrust areas identified for future collaboration a.. Joint military exercises will be held in 2006 or 2007 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
MOSCOW: Russia has agreed to help India build the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) and the air defence vessel.
Speaking after a two-day session of the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission (IRIGC) for military-technical cooperation on Wednesday, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the Russian side had assured him that it would share the technology for building the ATV and air defence vessels and would go in for co-production in some areas of their construction.
ATV is an indigenous project for the development of nuclear submarines.
The Russian Defence Ministry had also agreed to a request from the Department of Space to give India access to civilian and military applications of Russia's Glonass space navigation system, Mr. Mukherjee said.
This will enable the Indian Armed Forces to target missiles with high precision. Under a bilateral accord signed last year, India and Russia will jointly launch navigational satellites to make Glonass fully operational by 2007.
Decision has been taken at the 5th IRIGC session that India and Russia will jointly design and manufacture a Multi-role Transport Aircraft (MTA) for the airforces of the two countries. Russia will purchase 100 planes and India will go for 45 planes, Mr. Mukherjee said.
It has been agreed that the two sides will have equal participation and work share in the project. The Indian side has handed over to Russians a draft agreement on MTA that is expected to be signed during the coming visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Moscow early next month.
India is also interested in joining hands with Russia to build a 5th-generation fighter aircraft, Mr. Mukherjee said. Russia's Sukhoi and MiG aircraft building companies have made proposals to India regarding the project, and the IAF and HAL are actively involved with the Russian side in discussing details.
"We are interested not just in financial participation in the project, but want to fully participate in designing, developing and manufacturing the 5th-generation plane," the Defence Minister said. He explained that the Sukhoi aircraft company had already made a presentation of the 5th-generation aircraft in India, and the Indian side was now waiting for the MiG corporation to make their presentation in order to be able to compare the two offers.
The sides discussed terms for the supply of three TU-22M long-range bombers to India. "We want to have the planes on a lease basis and to have Russia's assurance of post-delivery maintenance and servicing," Mr. Mukherjee said.
Mr. Ivanov said the sides identified several thrust areas for military-technical collaboration in the coming years, which include joint development, production and marketing of defence systems for third countries, as well as modernisation, servicing and maintenance of Russian hardware supplied to India.
"Cooperation in these areas will progress far more dynamically than before," the Russian defence chief said. "We are advancing from the buyer-seller relation to technology partnership in designing, developing, producing and marketing of weapon systems in third countries."
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