MOSCOW. Aug 25 (Interfax-AVN) - Establishment of a unified aircraft building company and granting private capital an access to aircraft industry management may be dangerous for Russia's defense capability, presidential advisor Alexander Burutin has said.
"Giving private business an access to aircraft industry management in the currently planned volume brings about a lot of perils. For instance, unprofitable enterprises related to production of long-range or strategic aviation aircraft, such as Tupolev, may be closed, and there is a threat of destroying an entire series of competing scientific schools, such as Sukhoi - MIG - Yakovlev or Mil - Kamov," Burutin said in an interview with the Voyenno-Promyshlenny Kurier weekly, published on Wednesday.
According to him, the proposed creation of the Unified Aircraft Building Company (OAK) runs contrary to anti-monopoly laws and may become a problem for aircraft customers.
"I cannot but notice that the sale of OAK assets to foreign competitors implies a high degree of risk (the current plan is to sell up to 50 percent of the new company's shares to such companies as Boeing or Airbus - Interfax-AVN). I would like to stress that they are competitors, not partners," Burutin said.
He recalled that over the 10 years of cooperation between the Perm engine plant and the U.S. corporation Pratt & Whitney the parties have not produced the up-to-date variety of the PS- 90A2 engine intended for civil airliners. The partnership of the Mil JSO and the Eurocopter company has so far failed to bring the MI-38 helicopter on the market, too.
According to him, unscrupulous competition may escalate if limitations on foreign capital's participation in assets of domestic aircraft building industry are lifted. "There is a danger of such developments at more advanced markets, too. It is obviously not in vain that nearly all developed Western countries maintain limitations on selling shares in defense industry enterprises to foreign investors," he said.
At the same time, unification of enterprises in large integrated companies is the main workstream in the defense industry reform, Burutin stressed.
"Integration is among the main factors of development and competitiveness of the entire Russian aviation industry. The question is: what is the rational level of consolidation?" Burutin said.