Defense products accounting for 30% of Russian space industry output

MOSCOW. May 4 (Interfax-AVN) - Combat space rockets and other defense products account for 29.1% of the space industry output, the Russian Federal Space Agency's press-service said on Thursday.

According to it, combat space rockets accounted for 85.6% and other defense products for 14.4% of the 2005 output of military products.

The overall share of space rockets amounts to 51.8% of the industrial output, with 61.9% being scientific and social rockets, and 38.1% military purpose space rockets.

Civil products accounted for 19.1% of the output of the space industry.

According to the press-service, the 2005 output increased by 12.7% y-o-y 2004. The output increase exceeds the space industry development rates more than 2.5-fold. The labor productivity increased by 13.6% and capital productivity by 4%.

A total of 26 rocket launches were carried out in 2005, which amounted to 47.2% of all launches in the world. A total of 35 spacecraft, including 14 foreign satellites, were orbited.

At the present time the strength of the Russian orbital force totals almost 100 military, dual-purpose, scientific, and socio-economic spacecraft. The spacecraft are being improved. For instance, there are spacecraft with a service life of up to 10-12 years. The number of GLONASS satellites increased up to 17 in 2005, while in 2004 it equaled only 14.