SOCHI. Oct 24 (Interfax) - Russian air defense system and aircraft enjoy the highest demand in African countries, Russia's Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) said.
"Countries of the African continent traditionally purchase a whole range of weapons and military hardware from us. It is primarily [Mil] Mi-family helicopters, Sukhoi- and MiG-family airplanes, Pantsir-S1, Tor-M2E, and Kornet-E air defense systems, armored hardware and small arms that enjoy the highest demand in countries of Africa south of Sahara," it said.
"In turn, countries of North Africa have been displaying their interest in buying armored hardware, air defense systems, naval hardware, MiG, Su and [Ilyushin] Il airplanes, different helicopters, electronic warfare equipment, and small arms," the service said.
FSMTC head Dmitry Shugayev said earlier that the overall book of orders with African countries exceeds $14 billion today, with Africa's countries south of Sahara account for more than $2 billion of them.
"On the whole, cooperation with countries of Africa has been developing at a steady and rapid pace over the past five years, with them [African countries] accounting for 30%-40% of Russia's weapons exports annually," Shugayev said.