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United Shipbuilding Corp can’t reduce by 30% cost of new n-subs

“The military agency is not satisfied with the final price and insists on bringing it down substantially,” President of the United Shipbuilding Corporation Trotsenko said

MOSCOW, October 12 (Itar-Tass) —— The United Shipbuilding Corporation cannot meet the Defence Ministry demands to bring down by 30% the cost of the contracts to build nuclear-powered submarines, President of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (OSK) Roman Trotsenko told a press conference at the Itar-Tass head office here on Wednesday.

“Our share in the Defence Ministry orders makes 30-35%. The military agency is not satisfied with the final price and insists on bringing it down substantially,” he said. “Our solvency in building the ships is limited to 20% in our works and one percent in the work of subcontractors,” Trotsenko noted. “Our solvency rate reaches 6-7%,” he pointed out. “We understand the goal, which the Defence Ministry is seeking for, but with all respect to the ministry we cannot bring down by 30% the contract cost,” the OSK chief said.

The way out of the current situation “concludes in two issues,” he remarked. “The first issue is if the Defence Ministry selected its subcontractors let it supervise them on its own. The second issue is to let the Defence Ministry instruct us as professionals to build ships up to their tactical and technical features, but also to select the subcontractors,” Trotsenko stressed.

“We expect a decision on the issue,” the OSK chief added, but did not make public the cost of the contract to build nuclear submarines. “This is a very big sum,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, the interdepartmental committee for the settlement of price disputes in the contracts between the Defence Ministry and the corporation already began working.

“The interdepartmental committee was formed. The Federal Tariff Service is engaged in the committee work. We are positive about the committee creation,” Trotsenko noted.

The Defence Ministry and the United Shipbuilding Corporation differ in “tens of billions of roubles” of their estimates in the cost of Borei and Yasen class nuclear submarines, Russian First Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Sukhorukov said on Tuesday.

The special interdepartmental working group was formed under the government for this purpose, “but even at the level of the military and industrial committee we cannot find an answer what the real cost of nuclear submarines will be,” he indicated. “The Defence Ministry agreed to accept any price, but it should be economically feasible and proved in the estimates. OSK has major problems with this,” Sukhorukov stated. He named as one more reason “the imperfect pricing system in the country.” “Actually this system is just taking shape,” the first deputy defence minister underlined.