MOSCOW, February 23 (AVN) - The Antei consortium and the Almaz central design bureau are about to complete negotiations on unification, Antei Director General Yuri Svirin told the Military News Agency on Friday.
Antei Constructor General Veniamin Efremov and his Almaz counterpart Alexander Lemansky took part in the negotiations and agreed to base the forthcoming merger research and technical backlogs of the two companies in the framework of developing a new-generation air defence missile system, Svirin said. The system will considerably surpass combat capacities of Almaz's S-400 and Antei's Antei-2500.
The merger will help preserve high technologies and promising developments in the sphere of modernising current and promising air defence systems, Svirin said. The country is impossible to finance two similar companies, he added.
The two companies believe, however, that there is no need to speed up the merger, as each enterprise has to complete works on technical and technological guidance of earlier produced equipment, on completing all planned rework and modernisation for which the companies' control is required.