MOSCOW. Jan 28 (Interfax-AVN) - About 70 percent of the products made by Belarussian defense enterprises are exported, primarily to Russia, Major General Ivan Dyrman, Belarussian Deputy Defense Minister, said in an interview with the Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozrenie newspaper, published Friday.
"The country's defense industry managed to adjust to the new economic situation: up to 70% of its products, including military ones, are intended for use in other countries, primarily in Russia," he said.
Dyrman added that Russian enterprises also assist Belarus in modernizing its armament and materiel.
Among the modernized pieces of equipment in service with the Belarussian Armed Forces, he named the MIG-29BM Fulcrum multi-role fighter and the Grad multiple-launch rocket system based on the MAZ chassis. Dyrman emphasized that some cutting-edge equipment was developed by Belarussian specialists. The systems include the mobile fighter control and guidance post, the transportation and loading vehicle, the special purpose computer systems, sights for small arms, the all-wheel-drive 4x4 Maz cross-country vehicle with transportation capacity of 6 tons, the Dvina-M automated flight data processing system, and a variety of simulators for training crews, sections and specialists of the Armed Forces.
"More effective automated command and control assets will be elaborated in the near future. Apart from that, there are plans to adopt the modernized SU-27UBM1 multi-role fighter and the MI-8MTKO1 helicopter for service, as well as some electronic countermeasure systems and railroad forces equipment," he said.
Dyrman noted that the mechanisms of military and technical cooperation with Russia are far from perfect, as they sometimes prevent the two countries from effective and mutually beneficial partnership.
"For instance, there are some factors that hamper with the joint development of equipment. Unfortunately, there are no positive steps in cooperation with the Russian Air Force in terms of forging a single aircraft repair network within the framework of the Union of Russia and Belarus," he added.