MOSCOW. Aug 30 (Interfax-AVN) - Military-purpose products will amount to about 50 percent of the Ilyushin aircraft company's output by 2015, Ilyushin Director General Viktor Livanov has said.
"The state defense order did not exceed six to eight percent in the past few years, but the situation is changing for the better. It has grown to 15-20 percent already this year, and we are hoping to reach 50 percent in the state armament program for 2005-2015," Livanov said in an interview published in the latest issue of the Air Fleet Herald magazine.
Speaking about the company's purely military orders, he noted that he was primarily speaking about "military transports and special purpose planes."
"In the Soviet times, civilian and military orders were divided equally," Livanov said.
He pointed at the possibility of leasing military aircraft, saying that it was a promising form of cooperation with the Air Force.
"For over a year, we have been preaching the idea of introducing the leasing practice to our relations with the Air Force, especially as far as expensive orders are concerned. This is an extremely promising idea," Livanov said, noting that many countries have adopted this practice. For instance, Great Britain leased C-17 planes, each costing about $150-180 million.