Russia in the global arms market
The global arms market is a complex system of international trade and economic relations. Trade weapons It makes it possible not only to earn income, but also to have a significant impact on the global military-political situation and the course of the countries' foreign policy activities, build up the military potential of the Allied states, test new types of weapons, and also provide the military-industrial complex with orders.
International arms trade has its own characteristics. One of them is that often the export of military equipment and weapons binds customers to suppliers. As a rule, long-term contracts are concluded between countries, since there is a need for service maintenance of the supplied equipment, provision of spare parts, and modernization of samples purchased earlier.
Despite the fact that most of the arms deals are in accordance with interstate relations and is legal in nature, there is also an illegal arms trade, which, by the way, brings great profits.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, over the period from 2007 to 2011, arms shipments in the world increased by 24 percent compared to the previous five years.
The Russian center for analysis of the world arms trade provided its data, taking as its basis the last four years. According to these results, the volume of world arms exports for the 2008-2011 period is 55 percent from previous figures. This figure is much higher than the figure called SIPRI. However, there is no reason to doubt the veracity of the information provided by TSAMTO.
Thus, today the situation looks like this: the global arms market has overcome regression, which occurred in the 2008-2009 years. But at the same time, he was two years behind the global economic crisis. The situation is unstable, since the signing of most contracts was postponed to 2012 year.
However, it is on 2012 year experts predict another round of economic global crisis. And if this really happens, then most of the contracts for the supply of arms will either be postponed again indefinitely, or generally terminated. Therefore, the current year will be decisive for determining the prospects for the development of the global arms market.
In accordance with the delivery schedules, for the year 2012 the volume of world exports of weapons and military equipment will be approximately 65 billion dollars.
Of these, about 39 percent comes from US arms exports. Over the past year, this figure was slightly higher and was about 42 percent of the total. The second place after the USA is occupied by Russia, whose volume of world arms supplies will be more than 17 percent (against 15 percent 2011 of the year). France leads the top three with 7,8 percent of global supply.
The top ten arms exports also included Germany (6,5 percent), United Kingdom (4,7 percent), Italy (4,3 percent), Israel (4 percent), Spain (2,1 percent), Sweden (2,9 percent) and China (2,3 percent).
In general, it should be noted that the Russian military-industrial complex, which for a long time was ignored by the official authorities, is finally beginning to develop. So, among the first statements of V.Putin after winning the presidential election, there were promises to visit the Uralvagonzavod enterprise to discuss the problem of state defense order. Recall planned full modernization of this plant, as well as the construction of new plants. Thus, Russia begins to increase arms exports, despite global trends.
Last year, Russia exported weapons and military equipment to 57 states of the world (according to Isaikin, such countries were 80). The main buyers of Russian weapons in 2011 were India, China, Algeria, Venezuela, Syria and Vietnam.
Currently, arms sales to Syria are approximately 1 billion dollars. This number includes rocket launchers, as well as small-sized weapons, the supply of which increased significantly after the start of demonstrations against the Assad regime. At the moment, the contract for the supply of Syria coastal missile systems "Bastion" with anti-ship supersonic Yahont cruise missiles is at the final stage. In addition, contracts were signed for the supply of 8 divisions of the Beech M2E and 24 MiG-29М and M2 air defense complexes.
It should also be noted that the geography of Russia's military-technical cooperation is gradually expanding. So, Rosoboronexport began to cooperate with Germany, Kyrgyzstan, Guatemala, Mali, Laos, Singapore, Uruguay, the Czech Republic and Equatorial Guinea. At the stage of negotiations is the relationship with Chile and Argentina.
Among the exported types of weapons and military equipment, one can mention Su-30 combat aircraft, Yak-130 combat training aircraft, Tor, Buk, and Shell shells (the S-400 will be exported only after it is put into service Russian Air Defense Forces), transport and combat aircraft, as well as corvettes, frigates, Tanks, submarines and infantry fighting vehicles. More than 50 percent of deliveries aviation. For example, in North America and Europe, the Mi-17 is in great demand, in Greece - anti-aircraft missile systems, in Turkey - anti-tank systems "Cornet", in Cyprus - tanks, in France - guided missiles "Krasnopol-M" and helicopters Mi-26.
The global export of weapons and military equipment is not complete without failures. They have not bypassed Russia. So, most recently in India, the largest failure in recent years has befallen the Russian technology: in the tender for the supply of 126 fighters, the Russian MiG-35 lost, just like the Mi-28H “Night Hunter” - for the supply of 22 combat helicopters. Moreover, Thailand and Bangladesh refused to buy T-90 tanks. Russia has lost another major customer - Libya. According to experts, if it were not for these failures, the figures for Russian arms exports would be much higher.
However, we should not forget that competition in the arms market is increasing, new exporters are emerging on the world market. So, for example, in 2011, France increased its arms exports by 25 percent. In general, last year was for this country a year of major contracts: first, new Libyan structures are to be armed, and second, India made an order to upgrade the Mirage 2000 fighters. In addition, the "Arab war" led to the fact that the French military equipment was purchased in large quantities by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. However, the largest contract for the French was the sale of Russian Mistral helicopter carriers. This time, the Russian Federation acted as a buyer, confirming V.Putin’s words that the country would make point purchases of weapons in order to obtain technologies and knowledge for the development of the domestic military-industrial complex.
In addition, the media recently reported that the signing of the largest contract for the last 10 years between Russia and China on the supply of 48 fighters, the total value of which is 4 billion, is at the final stage. At the same time, the Russian side demands from the Chinese an official refusal to copy fighters, wishing in this way to protect themselves from the appearance of a competitor in the world market. The issue of intellectual property protection is being raised quite legitimately, since, according to experts, the Chinese have flooded the world market with copies of Russian tanks and missile systems.
Thus, Russia plans to sign contracts for the supply of weapons and military equipment worth 25 billions of dollars. In the coming decade, the government’s intention to invest more than 23 trillion rubles in the development of the domestic military-industrial complex will enable the defense industry to develop at the proper level. Some of these funds will go to the import of military equipment and technology. The renewal of the military-industrial complex will create prerequisites for the development of other sectors of the national economy. But in this case, actively buying and selling weapons, how to refute the accusations of pandering to the new arms race in the world?
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