GABORONE, Botswana — Russian air defense equipment manufacturer Concern Radio-Electronic Technologies (KRET) said it will deliver 28 units of the President-S onboard defense system to the Egyptian Air Force (EAF) by July.
In an interview with Russian language newspaper Kommersant, KRET's general director, Director-General Nikolai Kolesov, said Egypt expressed interest in acquiring at least 30 more units of the sophisticated system, which is designed to protect aircraft from being struck by missiles, for aerial defense, and as anti-aircraft artillery systems, by May of this year.
Deliveries will also be made to Algeria, Belarus: "This June or July we plan to complete the delivery of the first 28 systems to Egypt," Kolesov said. "They (Egypt) want to order an additional 30 systems in April-May. We will also deliver 12 systems to Belarus, five systems so far to India, while information about Algeria is closed yet."
Kolesov said Algeria has made a firm commitment of intent to acquire the system, which is compatible with its 12 new Russian-made Mi-26T helicopters and the 42 Mi-28NE Night Hunter attack helicopters recently ordered from Moscow.
Egypt plans to deploy the system on the 46 Kamov Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopters ordered from Russia to equip the Egyptian Navy's two Mistral-class helicopter carrier vessels ordered from France last year.
According to equipment specifications from KRET, the President-S ODS is capable of detecting threats to a protected aircraft and taking countermeasures that include hitting or jamming the optical homing devices of aircraft, air defense systems, guided missiles and man-portable air defense systems (MANPAD).
Meanwhile, Algeria also expressed interest in acquiring up to 10 Russian-made Sukhoi Su-35 multirole aircraft after being impressed with its successful debut in the Russian Aerospace Forces counterterrorism campaign in Syria in 2015.
A Russian military-industrial source told Kommersant that Algeria requested and has been testing a single Su-35 since December 2015. He said the country indicated it could acquire up to 10 Su-35s for a cost of up to $900 million.
In January, Russia confirmed an Algerian order of 12 Su-32 Fullback fighter bombers at an estimated cost of $600 million.
Email: onkala@defensenew.com
