Venezuela Will Load Urals Defence Plants With Work

16.09.2009 — News

OAO NPK Uralvagonzavod (Ural Railway Car Plant) will take part in the fulfilling of the contract for shipping Russian arms to Venezuela. Russia will provide this Latin-American country a 2.2 billion dollar tied loan for the purchase of 92 T-72 tanks, Smerch multiple rocket launchers, and cruise missiles.

The defence experts informed RusBusinessNews that it is most likely the tanks from the Ministry of Defence of the RF reserves will be exported to Venezuela. Prior to shipping all machines will undergo modernisation at the original manufacturing plant, OAO Uralvagonzavod. Choosing T-72 tanks by the Venezuelan military is explained by the price tag. The state of the art T-90 is five times more expensive, depending on options included it costs five to seven million dollars.

During recent years OAO Uralvagonzavod has been making tanks predominantly for foreign armies. India and Algeria are amongst the key buyers. India has started assembling the T-90 locally under license in 2009. Around 165 T-90C tanks have been made in Nizhniy Tagil in 2008, about a third of these were supplied to the Russian military.

Hugo Chavez's striving to establish an anti airstrike system would enable other Urals companies get more orders. The Venezuelan leader likes the Smerch multiple rocket launchers which is manufactured by "Motovilicha plants" stock corporation, Perm. Moreover, the 300 kilometre range cruise missiles will also purchased in Russia. Most likely it will be the anti-ship missile system Club made by the Experimental Design Bureau Novator in Ekaterinburg.

Venezuela has been a traditional buyer of Russian arms in recent years. Since 2005 Venezuela bought helicopters, military planes, and Kalashnikovs for the sum total of 4 billion dollars.