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Almaz Antei Gets Electronics Divisions
Eleven new enterprises, mainly electronics producers, will become part of the Almaz Antei concern in order to complete the development of the fifth-generation air-and-space defense system now being developed there. According to a source in the military industrial complex, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an order to that effect a few days ago.
That brings the number of enterprises embraced by Almaz Antei to 57. Four of the new enterprises are federal state unitary enterprises. Those enterprises still have to be reincorporated as joint stock companies. The state will own all shares in them.
The S-300 and S-400 weapons systems now in use are capable of providing air defense for only for comparatively small areas of military activity. The new system being developed by Almaz Antei is a unified system for the whole country. Almaz Antei was named the main contractor for the system at a meeting of the military industrial commission on February 27.
Kommersant sources say that a new design bureau will be set up for the development of the system. No new developmental design bureau has been set up in the country since the 1980s. A new federal target program will be set up for the unified system as well. “The new system will be our asymmetrical answer to the U.S.'s creation of a ballistic missile defense system, and the Russian system will cover the entire country not only from the airplanes and missiles of a potential enemy, but it will be able to destroy any space apparatus.”
Independent analysts say that the new enterprises will increase Almaz Antei's competitiveness. “Almaz Antei' activity only in air defense is a dead end,” commented director of the Center for Strategy and Technology Analysis Ruslan Pukhov. “The concern should most likely develop as a multipurpose holding, like the American Raytheon. He noted that the new enterprises were a step in exactly that direction.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 06, 2007
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