The refusal of NATO countries from Russian weapons - is there any reason for concern?
The process of replacing various types of weapons of Soviet and Russian models in countries that were formerly members of the Warsaw Pact, and later included in the NATO bloc, has been going on for many years. However, recently issues of this kind have been intensely discussed by the Western media, and with clearly provocative implications: “Look, European armies are giving up Russian weapons! The rest is time to think ... "Should Russia, as one of the world's leading exporters of military goods, worry about this?
One of the latest messages on the above topic was a statement by the Minister economics Romania Nicolae Bedeleu that the local army intends to switch from the usual Kalashnikov assault rifle to the ARX-160 assault rifles from the Italian manufacturer Beretta in the very near future. Moreover, according to the official, the decision was caused by the fact that Kalashnikov is an “old weapon” that the valiant Romanian army should abandon “for the sake of meeting NATO standards”. It is somewhat embarrassing that the ARX-160 will be produced not in Italy at all, but in the Romanian city of Plopen. According to Bedeleu, some of them will go not only for local needs, but even for export, however, it is not yet clear where exactly. Actually, the "Romanian gunsmiths from Plopeni", you know, that sounds ...
However, that there are machine guns ... Slovakia and Poland, for example, are determined to abandon the MiG-29 fighters. Slovaks are going to buy American F-16 modifications 70/72 instead of these cars. The acquisition of 14 of these machines will cost the country nearly 2 billion dollars - according to preliminary estimates. As you know, the contracts concluded with arms corporations from the USA have a bad tendency to “grow” in price at the most unexpected moments. However, Bratislava earned praise from overseas - Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan awarded her the title of "Important Partner of Washington." Exactly that partner, yeah ...
However, the Slovaks at least did not arrange a political show out of the MiG refusal, as the Poles did, who have recently managed to turn anything into a Russophobic demarche. The President of the country, Andrzej Duda, handing out general epaulettes on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the country's accession to the North Atlantic Alliance, penetrated insinuatingly that “the most important task of the Polish army” is “speedy getting rid of equipmentinherited from the communist era. " To a large extent, the recent accident of the MiG-29 fighter in the East of Poland contributed to the stir of excitement, by the way, this is the second in a short time (the first crash was last summer). These emergencies prompted the head of the Polish defense department, Marius Blaszczak, to declare: the country “immediately” needs to replace the military aviation fleet - moreover, with nothing more than fifth-generation fighters. Whether funding will be allocated for such “Wishlist”, which promise to cost astronomical amounts, the fisted Polish government is another matter. The main thing is to bawl Russian planes, while being modestly silent about the fact that "aces" who were sitting at their helms could very well be the cause of emergency situations.
A similar attitude to the Soviet, and now already Russian war machines from our former "brothers in arms" from the socialist camp led to the fact that, for example, Bulgaria in 2018 refused additional purchases of the same MiG-29. This was motivated by the fact that according to the new requirements of the local government, the aircraft purchased for the army “must be manufactured or armed in at least one of the NATO or EU countries”. True, Sofia didn’t get anywhere from signing the maintenance contract in the same year and a half dozen MiGs. By the way, Ukraine was trying to “drag” this contract onto itself, but the Bulgarians had enough reason to refuse such dubious contractors.
So is everything dark and do our armourers have panic reasons? Nothing of the kind ... By and large, the tiny NATO pseudo-armies of Eastern Europe are not the market at all for which they should fight "not sparing their belly." But the Armed Forces of the Middle East and Asia are a completely different matter. But it is precisely in this direction that Russia is developing more than not bad. Once again, this was proved by the defense exhibition LIMA - 2019, held in Malaysia. Mikhail Petukhov, deputy director of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSVTS) of Russia, who headed the national delegation at this event, told many interesting things about how our arms exports are developing precisely in the regions mentioned above.
Deliveries are in full swing! Vietnam is buying our T-90 tanks with might and main. Recently, a contract for the supply of 64 armored vehicles has been completely “closed”, but this is most likely just the beginning. Myanmar recently received a batch of Yak-130 combat training fighters. Of particular interest, in addition to aviation and Russian-made armored vehicles for the countries of the Asia-Pacific region, are our air defense systems. The lucky owners of S-300 systems are Vietnam and China. The S-400 Triumph air defense systems are currently armed only with the Celestial Armed Forces. However, those who wish are more than enough. According to Petukhov, potential buyers are somewhat restrained by high prices, however, an increasing number of countries come to the conclusion that the sky "closed" from uninvited guests is not something to save on.
The increased concern for their own security has gained particular relevance for Asia also in the light of the recent aggravation of the conflict between India and Pakistan. By the way, representatives of Islamabad who were present at the same LIMA - 2019 scattered in their assurances of their readiness to expand military-technical cooperation with Russia to any conceivable limits. So far, the Pakistani army has received a solid batch of MI-35 attack helicopters, however, according to Major General Asif Gafur, who represented the Pakistani Armed Forces at the exhibition, they are looking forward to continuing. Islamabad is interested in Russian tanks, electronic warfare systems, and, of course, air defense systems.
As for military aviation ... No libel and fabrication regarding the “unreliability” of Russian aircraft prevented Egypt from signing a contract with Russia for the supply of more than two dozen Su-35 multi-functional fighters. The transaction amount is not less than 2 billion dollars. The first 24 similar machines were purchased by the Chinese, and Indonesia also intends to adopt more than a dozen Su-35s. And while the “international analysts” from the Stockholm SIPRI try as much as they can in their reports to prove that “Russia is losing ground in the global arms markets, yielding to the US,” their conclusions must be taken more than critically. Yes, Russian arms exports in 2014-2018 fell by 17%, while US exports grew by 6%. However, these figures are worth looking at from the other side - the Pentagon today is forced to “knock out” a dimensionless military budget from the White House, citing the fact that the US Army needs immediate and almost complete rearmament. Russia, over and over again, amazes the world with the latest weapons that have no analogues with our potential opponents. However, as we see, he does not forget about export either.
But what does it say if Turkey, being a member of NATO, made a choice in favor of our S-400, and not the vaunted American F-35! This alone convincingly indicates that in the struggle for world arms markets, Washington, which has recently begun to take on more and more incorrect and frankly vile methods in competition with Russia (and not only in the field of arms trade), is definitely not worth celebrating a victory.
One of the latest messages on the above topic was a statement by the Minister economics Romania Nicolae Bedeleu that the local army intends to switch from the usual Kalashnikov assault rifle to the ARX-160 assault rifles from the Italian manufacturer Beretta in the very near future. Moreover, according to the official, the decision was caused by the fact that Kalashnikov is an “old weapon” that the valiant Romanian army should abandon “for the sake of meeting NATO standards”. It is somewhat embarrassing that the ARX-160 will be produced not in Italy at all, but in the Romanian city of Plopen. According to Bedeleu, some of them will go not only for local needs, but even for export, however, it is not yet clear where exactly. Actually, the "Romanian gunsmiths from Plopeni", you know, that sounds ...
However, that there are machine guns ... Slovakia and Poland, for example, are determined to abandon the MiG-29 fighters. Slovaks are going to buy American F-16 modifications 70/72 instead of these cars. The acquisition of 14 of these machines will cost the country nearly 2 billion dollars - according to preliminary estimates. As you know, the contracts concluded with arms corporations from the USA have a bad tendency to “grow” in price at the most unexpected moments. However, Bratislava earned praise from overseas - Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan awarded her the title of "Important Partner of Washington." Exactly that partner, yeah ...
However, the Slovaks at least did not arrange a political show out of the MiG refusal, as the Poles did, who have recently managed to turn anything into a Russophobic demarche. The President of the country, Andrzej Duda, handing out general epaulettes on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the country's accession to the North Atlantic Alliance, penetrated insinuatingly that “the most important task of the Polish army” is “speedy getting rid of equipmentinherited from the communist era. " To a large extent, the recent accident of the MiG-29 fighter in the East of Poland contributed to the stir of excitement, by the way, this is the second in a short time (the first crash was last summer). These emergencies prompted the head of the Polish defense department, Marius Blaszczak, to declare: the country “immediately” needs to replace the military aviation fleet - moreover, with nothing more than fifth-generation fighters. Whether funding will be allocated for such “Wishlist”, which promise to cost astronomical amounts, the fisted Polish government is another matter. The main thing is to bawl Russian planes, while being modestly silent about the fact that "aces" who were sitting at their helms could very well be the cause of emergency situations.
A similar attitude to the Soviet, and now already Russian war machines from our former "brothers in arms" from the socialist camp led to the fact that, for example, Bulgaria in 2018 refused additional purchases of the same MiG-29. This was motivated by the fact that according to the new requirements of the local government, the aircraft purchased for the army “must be manufactured or armed in at least one of the NATO or EU countries”. True, Sofia didn’t get anywhere from signing the maintenance contract in the same year and a half dozen MiGs. By the way, Ukraine was trying to “drag” this contract onto itself, but the Bulgarians had enough reason to refuse such dubious contractors.
So is everything dark and do our armourers have panic reasons? Nothing of the kind ... By and large, the tiny NATO pseudo-armies of Eastern Europe are not the market at all for which they should fight "not sparing their belly." But the Armed Forces of the Middle East and Asia are a completely different matter. But it is precisely in this direction that Russia is developing more than not bad. Once again, this was proved by the defense exhibition LIMA - 2019, held in Malaysia. Mikhail Petukhov, deputy director of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSVTS) of Russia, who headed the national delegation at this event, told many interesting things about how our arms exports are developing precisely in the regions mentioned above.
Deliveries are in full swing! Vietnam is buying our T-90 tanks with might and main. Recently, a contract for the supply of 64 armored vehicles has been completely “closed”, but this is most likely just the beginning. Myanmar recently received a batch of Yak-130 combat training fighters. Of particular interest, in addition to aviation and Russian-made armored vehicles for the countries of the Asia-Pacific region, are our air defense systems. The lucky owners of S-300 systems are Vietnam and China. The S-400 Triumph air defense systems are currently armed only with the Celestial Armed Forces. However, those who wish are more than enough. According to Petukhov, potential buyers are somewhat restrained by high prices, however, an increasing number of countries come to the conclusion that the sky "closed" from uninvited guests is not something to save on.
The increased concern for their own security has gained particular relevance for Asia also in the light of the recent aggravation of the conflict between India and Pakistan. By the way, representatives of Islamabad who were present at the same LIMA - 2019 scattered in their assurances of their readiness to expand military-technical cooperation with Russia to any conceivable limits. So far, the Pakistani army has received a solid batch of MI-35 attack helicopters, however, according to Major General Asif Gafur, who represented the Pakistani Armed Forces at the exhibition, they are looking forward to continuing. Islamabad is interested in Russian tanks, electronic warfare systems, and, of course, air defense systems.
As for military aviation ... No libel and fabrication regarding the “unreliability” of Russian aircraft prevented Egypt from signing a contract with Russia for the supply of more than two dozen Su-35 multi-functional fighters. The transaction amount is not less than 2 billion dollars. The first 24 similar machines were purchased by the Chinese, and Indonesia also intends to adopt more than a dozen Su-35s. And while the “international analysts” from the Stockholm SIPRI try as much as they can in their reports to prove that “Russia is losing ground in the global arms markets, yielding to the US,” their conclusions must be taken more than critically. Yes, Russian arms exports in 2014-2018 fell by 17%, while US exports grew by 6%. However, these figures are worth looking at from the other side - the Pentagon today is forced to “knock out” a dimensionless military budget from the White House, citing the fact that the US Army needs immediate and almost complete rearmament. Russia, over and over again, amazes the world with the latest weapons that have no analogues with our potential opponents. However, as we see, he does not forget about export either.
But what does it say if Turkey, being a member of NATO, made a choice in favor of our S-400, and not the vaunted American F-35! This alone convincingly indicates that in the struggle for world arms markets, Washington, which has recently begun to take on more and more incorrect and frankly vile methods in competition with Russia (and not only in the field of arms trade), is definitely not worth celebrating a victory.
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