On May 9, the world got its first chance to see Russia's newly designed Armata combat platform -- Russia's first major armored vehicle and main battle tank development since the dissolution of Soviet Union in 1991. Billed by Russians as the most advanced military system in the world today, it certainly impressed global audiences and experts. As with many new military systems designed to meet a variety of challenges, there is now interest from Russia's foreign partners in acquiring this technology, even though it has not been tested in global conflicts the way American and Western technologies have been over the past two decades. Not surprisingly, the top two countries interested in Armata are already big customers of Russian military hardware, even as they remain fierce geopolitical rivals: China and India.
Russian daily Izvestia quotes Vladimir Kozhin, Russian presidential assistant on military-technical partnerships, as saying that "there is interest in the new technology -- mostly from our traditional partners such as India, China, and Southeast Asia." Kozhin explained that Armata technology will first go to the Russian armed forces, and only in the future be delivered to foreign armies. "In the meantime, foreign customers are satisfied with the Russian equipment delivered under current contracts."
Izvestia notes that according to military export professionals, Armata exports will only be possible in three years. However, the history of military-technical cooperation offers several examples of new arms technology ending up in foreign armies around the same time as it joins the exporting state's own forces. This was the case with the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, which was delivered to the Imperial Iranian Air Force in 1976, having being fielded by U.S. Navy only in 1974.
Izvestia also quotes Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies: "If a customer really wants to get new technology, then it's a question of whether it's a friendly country, and what is the amount of payment. The money you can gain from such exports can reduce the price and cost of this technology for the Russian Defense Ministry. Even if we are dealing with unfinished development, such a partnership can be done in conjunction with the export (weapon) version for the client, as is happening now in the case of T-50 fifth-generation stealth aircraft that is being jointly developed with India." The real verdict on the T-50 partnership is still out, though there are indicators that certain issues have to be ironed out between Moscow and New Dehli.
According to Pukhov, India is interested in Armata because the Indian military is not satisfied with its domestically produced Arjun main battle tank - joint tank development projects with Moscow are possible. China's latest MBT-3000 tank is based on a Soviet T-72 design that is several decades old, and Beijing's interest in Armata may stem from its desire for continued modernization and upgrade of its vast military forces.
(AP photo)
