Ukraine is arming and wants to arm NATO
The other day, the head of the Ukrainian mission in the North Atlantic Alliance, Ambassador I. Didenko, said that the Ukrainian government is taking a number of measures to develop relations with NATO at a qualitatively new level in the military industry. During the interview for the Interfax-Ukraine agency, he noted that due to certain circumstances, relations between Ukraine and the member countries of the alliance were in limbo. Therefore, the Ukrainian authorities will do everything possible to ensure that these contacts develop regularly. Didenko also said that the meetings of representatives of the two parties are scheduled for February already. He also stressed that during the negotiations, the Ukrainian side intends to work out the prospect of attracting the Ukrainian military-industrial complex to NATO contacts in order to participate in them and submit their applications.
Historically, trade weapons is one of the priority factors of international relations. Since it is one of the aspects of the foreign policy of each state, military trade has always attracted and will attract the attention of not only the world community, but also possible opponents and competitors, experts, as well as private individuals. The percentage of arms exports is about 2 percent of total world exports. And over the past decade, weapons worth about 300 billions of dollars have been sold. According to experts, approximately 50 of exporting countries and about 120 - importers deal with arms trafficking.
It is not surprising that Ukraine is trying to find its place in the global arms trade market. At the time of independence on the territory of Ukraine, the military-industrial complex included about 3,5 thousands of enterprises that employed 3 million people.
Today, the military-industrial complex of the Ukrainian state has a fairly high export potential in areas such as the development and modernization of military transport and combat aircraft and helicopters, the production of gas turbines and equipment based on military ships, the development and production of rocket-space complexes and missiles , development and research of samples of military equipment and weapons.
A.Artyushenko, director of the development and procurement of military equipment and weapons of the Ukrainian military, said that the ministry plans to adopt the Sapsan missile system before 2016. This is probably the first case for the entire period of independence, when the government allocates a significant amount to carry out developments of its own modern weapons. Such a decision was confirmed by the President of Ukraine V.Yanukovych during his visit to the Kharkov military factories. The designers of Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, who were the authors of 12 from 20 of similar developments during the Soviet era, will be engaged in designing. All the defense enterprises of the country will be engaged in construction. Thus, it will be a national Ukrainian development. The decision to create the Sapsan missile system was made back in 2006 year. It was planned that experimental tests of it would be held in the 2013 year, and in a few years, that is, in the 2015 year, it was supposed to start equipping the Ukrainian army with new weapons. But, since the funds for development were practically not allocated, then, accordingly, no work on its creation was conducted. Thus, the terms of delivery of the complex are transferred. However, according to some military experts, if the required amount is approximately 460 million dollars will be found, then the first missiles will be ready for 2015 year.
Recall that Ukraine has previously made attempts to create such missile systems. The first of these was carried out in 1994, when “Yuzhnoye” began the development of a complex of short and medium range “Borysfen”. The second is the “Thunder” OTRK, which was planned to be used as a defense of non-nuclear deterrence for the Ukrainian borders. But the lack of funds caused both of these projects to wind up.
The new missile system "Sapsan" should surpass the "Point-U" technical characteristics. Its effectiveness is low vulnerability and high mobility. According to the project, the Sapsan will be based on an automobile chassis, and the missiles will not require any additional maintenance costs during the operation. Thus, according to Ukrainian specialists, the new complex will be much cheaper than its closest competitor, the Russian Iskander, which costs approximately 1 billion dollars.
Experts quite ambiguously assess the desire of the Ukrainian government to create its own missile system. Some are sure that its creation and subsequent purchase will be of immense moral and psychological importance for the Ukrainian military, since in all the years of independence the Ukrainian army has not received a single complex. Others argue that if the state cannot sell a single complex to other countries, production will be unprofitable. Another part of the experts believes that such development is inexpedient, since Ukraine does not have a specially equipped testing ground or a guidance system that could ensure the accuracy of missile penetration. Russian experts generally say that the project is not very feasible in the conditions of Ukraine, but even if it is created, the complex will not be able to compete properly with the Iskander.
It should be noted that a year ago, as an alternative to development, the possibility of equipping the Ukrainian armed forces with Russian Iskanders was considered; however, according to Ukrainian politicians, such a move would only aggravate the dependence of the Ukrainian state on Russia and lead to a complete freezing of the Sapsan project.
Ukraine’s military initiatives are not thrilled with NATO, which, prior to the admission of Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria to the alliance, demanded the disbandment of the missile units. Moreover, the United States of America persistently demanded the Ukrainian government to destroy the Scud complexes. The arguments included the accession of Ukraine to the MTCR and the agreements on the INF.
Despite numerous difficulties, the Ukrainian government decided to create Sapsan. Upgrading missile weapons is relevant for the state, since most of the complexes that are in service with the Ukrainian army — Smerch, Grad, and Hurricane — have already exhausted their resources and need to be modernized. But neither the missiles themselves, nor their components in Ukraine are produced. “The Tochka-U complexes, which are currently in service, work out the service life to 2015 of the year. Therefore, the creation of a new missile system, which could replace outdated weapons, is the best option for Ukraine, especially since its production will require the cooperation of a large number of enterprises, which means thousands of jobs.
According to A.Artyushenko, that before 2016, the Ukrainian army will receive the first ship "corvette". In general, it is planned to build a ship of this class 4 to 2020 year.
To date, the Ukrainian fleet does not have ships in the far sea zone, and the flagship of the naval forces Getman Sagaidachny, the corvettes Ternopol and Lutsk, as well as the landing ship Konstantin Olshansky take part in international exercises.
The decision to develop a warship for the Ukrainian Navy was made back in 2006 year. The project is engaged in the Nikolaev Shipbuilding Research and Design Center, which stated that the new ship would combine the tasks of a frigate and a corvette.
The Minister of Defense of Ukraine M. Yezhel said that 29 enterprises of Ukraine would be involved in the construction. 200 million hryvnia will be allocated for the design work. The total budget of the program will be 16, 2 billion hryvnia, of which 11 billion is for the construction of ships.
The lead ship, the Vladimir the Great, was laid down in Nikolaev in May last year. According to the project, it is planned to equip the new ship with modern equipment. At the same time, the Minister of Defense said that this would not be Russian equipment and weapons, but purchases would be made in Italy and in France, and diesel generators would be purchased from the United States. It is assumed that the ship will be equipped with anti-ship missiles, the range of which is about 200 kilometers. Each corvette will have Exocet MM8 Block40 3 missiles, as well as an anti-aircraft missile launcher from the same company.
In addition, M. Yezhel urged the Ukrainian population to make charitable contributions for the construction of a new warship and even promised to transfer their monthly salary.
Recall that during the independence of the Ukrainian state, the naval forces received only two corvettes: in the 1994 year - the “Lutsk”, in the 2005 year - the “Ternopil”. All in all, the Ukrainian Navy has 56 ships, of which 28 are warships.
The state project of a targeted defense program for the development of military equipment and weapons for 2012-2017 provides for the provision of armed forces with new and modernized equipment in order to carry out combat missions.
For the development of the program for five years it is expected to allocate about 17 billion UAH In addition, it will determine the priorities in the development of the defense industry, which will contribute to the creation of modern weapons. It is planned to attract about 160 enterprises of the military-industrial complex of the Ukrainian state to the program.
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