MOSCOW. Nov 15 (Interfax-AVN) - A decline in the demand for aircraft will stop in 2005 and the market for combat and civil aircraft and helicopters will become stable before the end of the decade, said experts from the State Duma Industry, Construction and Knowledge-Intensive Technologies Committee.
This forecast is set forth in proposals for a draft program to promote Russian military, civil and dual-purpose aviation on the world market. The proposal was made by the committee's experts in the aviation and space industry.
The document says that importer countries currently have a park of 12,500 fighters of which at least 8,200 are outdated. About 3,000 combat planes, estimated at about $130 billion, are expected be built throughout the world in the current decade. The average price for a plane is about $47 million. The average annual export of combat planes is estimated at 210.
From 2005 to 2015, the world market of fighters will be distributed in the following way among the main exporters: Russia - 25%, Western Europe - 29%, the U.S.- 31% and the other exporters 15%.
The regional distribution of purchases in the current decade will be as follows: Europe and Canada - 20.4%, Southeast Asia - 19.1%, South Asia - 14.3%, China - 11.4%, Latin America - 7.5%, the Middle East and North Africa - 3.4% and countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States - 2.5%.
About 700 military transport planes are expected to be supplied to the world market before the end of the current decade, of which up to 500 planes will be purchased by developing countries, including 39% by countries in the Asia-Pacific region, 27% by countries of the Middle East, 15% by Latin American states and 19% by African states.
According to Western estimates, about 300 military planes will be supplied to the world market annually in the period until 2010. Russia's share will stand at 13%-16%, the share of the U.S. - 41%-43% and that of Western Europe - about 32%.
Russian experts are predicting that assault and intelligence planes will be in the greatest demand in Europe, troop-carriers and anti- submarine and intelligence helicopters in Asia and the Pacific, anti-tank and transport planes in the Middle East, patrol, intelligence and troop-carrying planes in Latin America and medium cargo helicopters in Africa.