KOLOMNA, Moscow Region. May 24 (Interfax-AVN) - The local Machine-building Design Bureau is planning to renew its production facilities prior to beginning serial production of new armament assets, first deputy designer general and chief of the bureau's design departments Valery Kashin told Interfax-Military News Agency on Friday.
Kashin said that the first stage of the project provided for acquisition of instrument production facilities.
"The total value of the loan contract mounts up to several million U.S. dollars," he said.
The first deputy designer general said that almost all the facilities now employed by the bureau were procured in the late 1980s and have already become obsolete. A full set of standard equipment will be purchased abroad, and in Germany, above all. The facilities are to be used for making drafts and producing auxiliary equipment employed for production of advanced armament assets.
Kashin stressed that the enterprise was spending own assets to fund renewal of the facilities, and a loan has been borrowed from a bank specifically for this purpose. The loan contract has already been elaborated; it is to come into force in a few days. Products of the bureau will be used to cover the debt, Kashin added.
He said that the enterprise is to employ advantages offered by international division of labor, since most of the world's arms producers do so; otherwise the bureau will lose access to international markets.
The Machine-building Design Bureau is engaged in developing and producing Igla-Super new generation portable anti-aircraft missile systems, Ataka-B and Malyutka-2 upgraded antitank missile systems, Khrizantema-S mutli-channel and multifunctional missile systems, Iskander-E mobile high-precision operative and tactical missile systems and Arena-E active protection sets mounted on armored vehicles.
More than 70 orders from 65 nations of the world for armament equipment and services had been placed with the design bureau before 2002. As many as 50 of the orders were direct ones, others were placed via the Rosoboronexport state-owned arms trader. Experts of the export trade department have put forward 40 commercial projects for foreign customers, more than 30 project contracts elaborated and dispatched to the enterprise's partners within the framework of military and technical cooperation.