YEKATERINBURG. March 30 (Interfax-AVN) - The Ural Optical- Mechanical Plant (UOMZ) signed USD1m's worth of spare parts exports contracts in 2003, UOMZ CEO Eduard Yalamov said in an interview with the latest issue of the Ekspert-Ural magazine.
"Today we are receiving spare parts and repairs orders, first contracts are coming. So far there's not been much - we are approaching the first million (U.S. - Interfax-AVN) dollars. We are planning a much higher figure for 2004 but I cannot voice it," he said.
In early 2003 UOMZ was granted a right to export spare parts and repairs of military hardware.
According to Yalamov, UOMZ contributes to the optical electronics of Sukhoi's fifth-generation fighter project. He said that this project was important for the national army as well as for export to China, India, and Malaysia.
"This work will take long, but if in the meantime there will be no object that can be sold right now, we will be pushed out of the market and fail the creation of the fifth-generation aircraft. Therefore the program is split into several stages. In, say, two years we will introduce some of the (fifth-generation - Interfax-AVN) solutions to the SU-35 and sell it. Foreign customers will make sure that it is not an upgraded SU-27 Flanker but a new aircraft that they are offered," he said.