MOSCOW. Feb 5 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia does not make the appropriate fuel for Mistral helicopter carriers, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin told reporters on Tuesday.
"There may be some inventions by our chemists to resolve this problem," he said while visiting the All-Russian Institute of Aviation Materials.
The Russia-French Military-Technical Cooperation Commission will hold consultations on February 14-15, he said. "Hopefully, our specialists will raise the question so that our French colleagues find a solution," Rogozin said.
"Scientific support to procurement decisions has been in short supply over the recent years; in fact, it has been neglected but the devil is in the details. Problems Russia may encounter in using Mistral [helicopter carriers] are being studied," the vice prime minister said.
A source in the Russian military shipbuilding industry told Interfax-AVN earlier that the Russian Navy would need about 50 types of European lubricants and fuel for normal operation of the Mistral helicopter carriers under construction in France but Russia did not make many of them.
"The replacement of original fuel and lubricants, including diesel fuel for the engine, with Russian-made products is problematic: it is fraught with the breakdown of the engine and other systems or, at least, the warranty cancellation," the source said.