KOVROV, Vladimir Region. April 10 (Interfax-AVN) - The state defense order placed with the Kovrov-based Degtyarev plant will be doubled in 2004, the plant's press secretary Lyudmila Petrova said on Thursday.
"The Defense Ministry's plans to double the state defense order placed with the Degtyarev plant were announced at a meeting of the enterprise's shareholders by Colonel General Nikolai Svertilov, head of the ministry's main missile and artillery department," Petrova told Interfax-Military News Agency.
She did not mention the products for which the Defense Ministry will place a larger order, saying only that the Degtyarev plant manufactures armaments for the Air Force, Navy and Land Forces. Among them are the Igla portable air defense missile system, Kornet long-range anti-tank system, 30-mm AGS-30 anti-personnel grenade launcher, and 3UBK-20 tank round for hitting armored vehicles, helicopters and field shelters. GSh-23 and SGh-30 rapid-fire twin-barrel guns are being produced for aircraft.
As to naval armaments, the plant manufactures the DP-65 small-size remote-controlled anti-saboteur grenade launcher intended for protecting ships, hydro-technical facilities, naval and coastal installations from attacks of diving saboteurs.
The Kord large-caliber machine gun is among the enterprise's latest developments.
The Degtyarev plant manufactured products worth RUB867.47m (USD27.73m) in the first quarter of 2003, which is a 33.5 percent increase from the same period last year, Petrova said. Productivity has grown by 24 percent. Consumer goods produced by the plant in January-March are worth a total of RUB48.47m (USD1.55m), which is a 55.7 percent increase from the same period of 2002.
The Degtyarev plant is the biggest defense industry enterprise in the Vladimir region.