Russia and the USA are long-standing competitors in the global arms market. US manufacturers hold their share with cunning tricks, sort of technical standardization. But now the domestic defense industry is ready to take a radical step, having fitted its Su-35 fighters, exported, under NATO avionics standards.
What are the pros and cons of this approach?The reason to speak on this topic was given by Mahathir Mohamad, former prime minister of malaysia, which opened to the ignorant many interesting nuances, regarding the purchase and acquisition of American warplanes. Ex-head of state told, what is malaysia, owning fighter F-18 Hornet, which cost her dearly enough, virtually unable to reprogram them, since control is still in Washington’s hands:You must contact the United States to post a program for any raid to foreign countries., for example ... We can only fly them at an air show. We cannot use them to fight any other country., because we will not get the source code.
Furthermore, is, Americans demand explanations from their customers about their purchase of ammunition for the aircraft they have already bought. The stunning frankness of the policy will inevitably make many buyers of US defense products think, as well as participants in joint arms production programs. Asks, why do you need such a weapon, which can only be used with the approval of Uncle Sam?For such statements on a retired politician of a very respectable age, the press has already labeled a not quite adequate person. But there is a rational grain in this. Not a secret, that the US restricts competitors' access to their traditional markets through narrow technical standards. Poor states, like Malaysia or Indonesia, if you get both American, and Russian military aviation, forced to contain two sets of management infrastructure in parallel, what is unprofitable and inconvenient to operate. Denying persistent arms dealers from Washington is problematic, therefore you have to choose some supplier as the main. Many foreign customers were previously interested in the possibility of adapting Russian aviation to NATO standards.. And here is Rosoboronexport, finally, expressed readiness to do this for Indonesia in relation to the Su-35 fighter party. The famous American edition of Military Watch responded to the message, confirming, that this step will simplify the deal with the island nation. How to relate to this information?One side, adaptation of Russian combat aircraft to NATO avionics standards will seriously expand its sales markets due to the lower cost of domestic aircraft in comparison with American. On the other hand, in the future, the Su-35 may appear in the NATO Air Force, beautiful generation fighters 4++, which will be used by pilots of a potential adversary for training purposes, so during a possible conflict.
Author: Sergey Marzhetsky
