PARIS, October 20 (Itar-Tass) —— The foreign sales of Russian special weapons and security equipment went up tenfold against 2001, the head of the Rosoboronexport delegation Valery Varlamov said at the 17th international exhibition of security means and systems MILIPOL-2011 here on Thursday.
He recalled that the Rosoboronexport foreign sales reached 8.7 billion dollars in 2010. Meanwhile, the share of Russian special weapons and equipment primarily intended for the struggle against terrorism “makes from 0.5% to one percent of annual overall sales.”
“If to take 2001 as the starting point, when the service for the export of special security equipment was formed, the sales of special equipment went up tenfold as compared with the present moment of time,” Varlamov said. “We supply special weapons and security equipment to more than 40 countries. The scope of export includes 200-250 models of special security equipment,” he pointed out.
“The development, production and exports of special weapons and security equipment have its own peculiarities. The first one is the level of external threat in various countries. The second is that the threat may be ‘blasting’ in character or gradual, and some special equipment is needed to ward it off timely,” Varlamov elaborated.
“The third peculiarity is that the special forces of some law enforcement agencies have to act in the peacetimes that require special demands for the use of special weapons and security equipment. The most important thing is not harm the civilians,” Varlamov believes.
“The fourth feature is that you cannot earn much in the export of special security equipment,” the Rosoboronexport official acknowledged. “Why? First, not all countries are rich. Secondly, this is usually unique products sold in small batches. Meanwhile, the cost of a unit of special equipment is much lower than the cost of military hardware, say, an airplane or a tank,” Varlamov remarked.
“Therefore, the sales of special security equipment bring no special economic effect. But there is another aspect of it. The special security equipment sales are profitable for us in political, image aspects. These deals are the way to conclude major contracts. Therefore, absolutely other criteria are used to assess the sales of special security equipment,” Varlamov underlined.