MOSCOW. March 22 (Interfax-AVN) - Termination of the Ukrainian airspace industry's cooperation with Russian enterprises may result in its total degradation, Andrei Kokoshin, Chairman of the State Duma CIS Affairs Committee, said at a news conference at the Interfax main office in Moscow on Tuesday.
"There is no doubt that if Ukraine does not cooperate with Russia in this sphere, the Ukrainian aircraft industry, and especially the space and missile industries, will degrade quickly and cease to be an economic development factor," Kokoshin said, commenting on the prospects of Russian-Ukrainian cooperation in defense industry.
According to him, the Russian defense industry is also interested in maintaining close cooperation with the Ukrainian defense industry.
"The Russian airspace industry stands a considerably better chance of surviving even without cooperation with Ukraine, but competitive capabilities of the Russian industry would be considerably higher if it cooperated with Ukraine closer," he pointed out.
This sector of economy features strong state domination throughout the world, Kokoshin said.
"Airspace industries in Europe constantly receive huge grants from respective states, which causes constant displeasure on the part of the U.S. In fact, the U.S. also grants huge assets to this sector via the state defense order, and more assets for research and development in the military sphere, the results of which are later on used by Boeing and Lockheed Martin to develop civil aircraft," he noted.
According to the lawmaker, Russian and Ukrainian aircraft industries jointly stand a chance of become the world's third aircraft-building center.
"We realize the EU and the U.S. do not want Russia, or Russia and Ukraine as potential competitors in the field of aircraft industry. However, at the moment Russia may become the world's third aircraft-building center. If it joins efforts with Ukraine and other CIS member-states, its competitive capabilities will certainly increase," Kokoshin said.
He assessed the potential of such Ukrainian enterprises as the Kharkiv Aircraft Plant and the Dnipropetrovsk-based Yuzhmash Plant highly.
Commenting on the prospects of the Russian-Ukrainian cooperation with regards to the AN-70 aircraft development, Kokoshin said that it was a fine aircraft, which had not grown obsolete yet, and that it was necessary to refine it and launch it into production both in Russia and Ukraine. "Despite the fact the EU will not procure the aircraft, while the U.S. and Britain have blocked the contract, the project may be developed further," he said.