The current years figures reflect a positive growth trend for the 11th Straight year and shows a healthy 15% growth over last years sales figure of $8.5 billion. Russia is the second largest arms exporter in the world, after the USA.
Russia has managed to find new customers including Venezuela and Algeria for its arms after its biggest buyer China decided to reduce its dependence on imported arms. However, Ivanov said 60 countries around the globe buy Russian arms.
Claiming the country has orders worth $45 billion; Ivanov said this is the “evidence that our exports will show levels for the next few years that are no lower than those achieved this year”.
More than 700 companies in the country are involved in defense production and development related activities.
However, he emphasized that Russian companies need to bring in qualitative improvement in their products to successfully compete with its competitors. Computer and nanotechnology, microelectronics and newer materials needs to be developed to match competition, he concluded.
