MOSCOW. Aug 29 (Interfax) - The S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile system's entry into the international market helped bring the share of air defense systems in Russia's military exports to 20% last year, the newspaper Vedomosti said on Thursday.
"The growth of air defense complexes' share in the overall volume of deliveries was prompted by the S-400 Triumf system's entry into the international market," the newspaper said, citing a source in the military-technical cooperation system.
Subsequently, this 20% rate can be maintained by promoting new S-350 Vityaz-type systems on the market and offering after-sales service options for earlier supplied air defense systems, the newspaper's source said.
"S-400 deliveries to the Chinese customer will be concluded this year, alongside deliveries of S-400 systems to Turkey, which will be completed in September," he said.
Therefore, according to Vedomosti's source close to the Russian state arms trader Rosoboronexport, air defense systems' share in the total amount of Russian military exports could even reach 25%-30% in 2019.
"And next year, by which the delivery contacts with China and Turkey will have been implemented, a major contract with India may start to be fulfilled. Russia hopes to receive an advance payment from India for S-400 complexes before the end of 2019. In this case, deliveries may start in 2020 and conclude by 2025, deputy director of Russia's Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation [FSMTC] Vladimir Drozhzhov told reporters in July," the newspaper said.
FSMTC director Dmitry Shugayev first told reporters at the MAKS 2019 air show on Wednesday that the share of air defense systems in Russia's military exports had risen to 20% in 2018.