MOSCOW. Nov 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The volume of the Russian state defense order in the naval sector guarantees the Russian shipbuilding industry's stable development even if naval hardware exports go down, says a report by the Expert Council of the Chairman of the Russian Governmental Military-Industrial Commission circulated at a forum dealing with Russia's shipbuilding and navigation on Thursday.
"In the past 10 years, Russia has marketed 13 surface ships worth $7.9 billion, which makes our country first in terms of the value of the contracts and fifth in terms of the number of ships sold," the report says.
At the same time, the experts concluded that ships with a water displacement of 1,000 tonnes or less will be most in demand on the market in the foreseeable future, while Russia has so far sold larger ships with a water displacement of at least 1,400 tonnes.
"The fact that the principal purchasers of Russian-made surface ships, India and China, have switched to serial construction of their own projects may have a significant effect on Russia's export positions, and the volume of supplies will inevitably decrease, although India, for example, plans to order three Project 11356 frigates," the report says.
"Project 21630 and Project 21631 minor missile and minor artillery ships, which are currently being constructed for the Russian Navy, may serve as a kind of trump card. Successful commissioning of these ships for the Navy may have a positive effect on decisions by potential importers," the report says.
"Project 20385 corvettes and Project 22350 frigates may put significant pressure on the market from the other side, when problems of launching these projects are resolved," it said.
"It hardly makes sense to seriously expect continuation of exports of nuclear submarines like the Nerpa supplied to India: Russia has neither orders of the necessary level of preparedness (the Amur Shipbuilding Plant's order No. 519 'Irbis' requires quite a lot of work to complete it) nor free facilities to build a nuclear submarine for export from scratch, as our own submarine fleet's modernization is a priority," the experts said.