Posted on 01/06/2002 10:53:20 AM PST by super175
Russia has secured a US$1 billion (HK$7.8 billion) contract to supply China with two modified Sovremenny-class destroyers, a report said.
The announcement, made against the backdrop of an accelerated military build-up by Beijing and Taipei, follows Washington's offer last year of its biggest arms package to Taiwan in a decade - including four Kidd-class destroyers.
Sovremenny destroyers pack more firepower than their older Kidd counterparts. Moscow has already shipped such warships to China, assembled from hulls laid down in the Soviet days.
Itar-Tass news agency said the two new 956-EM vessels were due for delivery in four years and would be an upgrade on the first batch. The warships would be built at the Northern Shipyard company in Russia's second city, St Petersburg.
"Russian designers have managed to significantly improve combat performance of all weapons to be installed on the destroyers ordered by the Chinese Defence Ministry," said Vladimir Yukhnin, who oversaw the modifications.
The report said each new warship would carry one dedicated helicopter. It quoted a government source as saying the value of the deal, signed on Thursday, exceeded US$1 billion.
Jane's Defence Weekly last year reported that Russia was facing difficulties in building the ships as manufacturers of some key components had remained beyond its borders in the wake of the Soviet Union's 1991 break-up.
Russian arms trade officials said late last year that they saw "a huge export potential" for Sovremenny-class destroyers.
China is a leading client for Russian arms manufacturers, which raked in more than US$4 billion in export sales last year.
Russia's lower house of parliament last month ratified a groundbreaking friendship treaty with China which recognised Beijing's sovereignty over Taiwan.
That is consistent with many prophecies [Click here and scroll down]
It would help if apples are compared with apples and pears were compared with pears. Soviet design philosophy ranked saftey and robustness over efficiency and comfort. Tu-134 and Tu-154s have been flown for decades in the kind of harsh weather than no western airliner is permitted to fly in and are extremely tough to boot too. Soviet pilots also had to train much longer than their western counterparts before they were allowed to pilot regular passenger flights. The reason for most of the Tu-154 crashes in the last decade is down to the lack of cash in and the degradation of the support infrastructure. The Soviet flight saftey record is quite good. Their airliners are also built with a larger number of flight cycles in mind.
As for 'russian workmanship', Hitler was given a tour of a captured Russian T-34s shortly after operation Barbarossa commenced. The T-34 had dozens of hits from german panzers, none of which had disabled it save a luck hit to the tracks. Hitlers only comment was something along the lines of 'it's not very well built is it?' before he parted.
VRN
True, I just call an opportunist an opportunist.
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