WASHINGTON, March 9. /TASS/. Most countries want to acquire technologies instead of just buying defense products, director for international cooperation and regional policy at Russia's Rostec defense and technology company Viktor Kladov told Defense News in an interview published on Friday.
"The biggest challenge [when it comes to international sales] is a rapidly changing world. Most nations don't want to just buy, they want to acquire technologies," Kladov said. "So in India, they have Made in India. In Indonesia, they want to produce locally. In the United Arab Emirates here, [the country] want to jointly design an aircraft, a helicopter," he added. "So we are having to change our ways from simply delivering equipment to establishing a technological partnership," he noted.
"Another challenge is that nations want lifetime support plans. We have so much equipment scattered all over the world — both Soviet-made and Russian-made — and in many places it doesn't work because we don't have a technical service center. So we are creating a network of services and follow-ip support," Kladov explained.
"We also have technological challenges. We are moving into the digital era. We are going into IT technologies, and within a few years we anticipate our IT exports will outpace our defense sales," he continued.
"Our goal for the company, Rostec 2025, is to achieve a 50-50 ratio between civilian defense products," Kladov concluded.
