YEKATERINBURG. Nov 9 (Interfax-AVN) - Serial production of domestic Modul-Avia IR imagers will allow Russia to abandon use of foreign analogies in hyrostabilized optic and electronic systems, Sverdlovsk Region Governor Eduard Rossel said on Friday.
The measure will allow to halve expenses on foreign components and reduce dependency on foreign providers, Rossel told Interfax-Military News Agency. The governor was asked to comment on development prospects of the Ural optic and mechanical plant.
Replacement of the Thermovision-1000 IR imagers with Modul-Avia will help improve specifications of hyrostabilized optic and electronic systems, because the performance of Russian IR imagers is better than that of their Swedish analogue.
The plant management has recently negotiated variants of joint activity with the Denel company of South Africa. Besides, it has held talks with representatives of France's Sagem and South Africa's Cumulus.
"In addition to the traditional interest displayed by Asian and South-eastern countries, Western European producers of aircraft have started paying attention to the plant's products," Rossel stressed. Particularly, a meeting involving officials of the plant, Rosoboronexport state-owned arms trader and Italy's Alenia company has been held to discuss a possibility of installing hyrostabilized optic and mechanical systems on European helicopters. In particular, the parties considered installation of the OPS-24 hyrostabilized surveillance and sighting system. The Ural plant's platform that can be installed in the MI-24/35 Hind aircraft, Russia's most popular helicopter abroad, provides the pilot with a stable image of the objet through a display, making the helicopter operational in the around-the-clock mode.