Igor Karavaev, director of the department for the development of the military-industrial complex of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, does not agree with the statement of representatives of the Ministry of Defense that Russian military equipment is expensive and inferior to modern Western models, Interfax reports. “We cannot confirm this information. An objective assessment of the tests, objective figures on the level of military-technical cooperation and the pace with which our exports of arms and military equipment are growing, testify to the opposite, he said at a press conference in Moscow.
Karavaev added that the T-90A tank mentioned the day before by the commander-in-chief of the Ground Forces, Alexander Postnikov, was tested in three climatic zones and in three countries - Saudi Arabia, India and Malaysia, having received a positive assessment. "The tests that were carried out in Saudi Arabia within the framework of an open tender completely refute the statements of the commander-in-chief," the director of the department emphasized.
According to him, the only tank that provided the entire test cycle in Saudi Arabia, and also carried out the defeat of more than 60% of targets after the march, was the Russian T-90A. “Neither Leopard, nor Leclerc, nor Abrams reached this level,” said Karavaev. "Accordingly, to say that our tanks are worse than their Western counterparts is not entirely reliable information."
Karavaev also spoke about the price of the T-90A tank. According to him, the cost of the vehicle declared by the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces is at least one and a half times higher than the price for which the manufacturer is ready to supply it in the interests of the Russian Ministry of Defense. "The T-90A tank is at least one and a half times superior to its closest competitor, the Leopard," said Karavaev.
On March 15, the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, Alexander Postnikov, said that the latest weapons systems for the ground forces do not correspond to the parameters of similar systems of NATO countries and even China. As an example, the general said that the world-famous newest Russian T-90 tank is in fact the 17th modification of the Soviet T-72, and its cost is currently 118 million rubles per unit. “It would be easier for us to buy three Leopards for this money,” Postnikov said.
Karavaev also said that the Russian defense-industrial complex could independently build a helicopter carrier of the French Mistral type, if the Ministry of Defense had been concerned about this issue five years ago. “You will not hear any other answer from me, except that the domestic shipbuilding industry is capable of producing this class of ship, and this is really so,” he said. - It's another matter that the RF Ministry of Defense did not preemptively raise the issue of developing such weapons. If it had been delivered five years ago, or three years ago, the situation would have been somewhat different."
He noted that the serial production of this type of ships has not been established in Russia. “First of all, from the point of view of industry, we are considering the purchase of Mistrals as a possible access to the technologies necessary for the production of this class of ships,” Karavaev explained.
