ST. PETERSBURG, June 20. /ITAR-TASS/. The St. Petersburg-based Klimov company, which manufactures engines for aircraft and helicopters, will fully substitute Ukrainian imports with its own products in 2015, the United Engine-Building Corporation said on Friday.
The import substitution will allow the Klimov engine producer, which is part of Russia’s United Engine-Building Corporation, to give up completely the use of components supplied by its Ukrainian partner, the Motor-Sich turbine engine enterprise in the Zaporozhye Region in south-eastern Ukraine.
The Klimov enterprises, which are developing engines for helicopters and fighter aircraft, moved to a new production site in St. Petersburg, which will double its capacity to 600 engines a year from 2016, the United Engine-Building Corporation said.
In the meantime, “Motor-Sich is making deliveries under the existing contracts without delays, and the contracts have not been cancelled,” a spokesman for the United Engine-Building Corporation said.
Russia’s air-defense missile systems manufacturer Almaz-Antei also maintains plans to start the production of its newest Vityaz S-350 medium-range air defense system in 2015 with reliance on its own components.
Almaz-Antei CEO Yan Novikov said the air defense system was little influenced by the Ukraine situation. “There were suppliers from Ukraine and certain difficulties, but these difficulties are being resolved, and the state defense order is being fulfilled,” he noted.
The substitution of Ukrainian suppliers may have a positive effect on the economy of St. Petersburg, a source close to the economic departments in the city’s government told ITAR-TASS.
It is real for St. Petersburg civilian and defense producers to find suppliers from Russian regions within 2-3 years, after which the city’s industrialists expect additional state orders to switch to production completely based on local supplies.