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>Germany’s Volkswagen seeks Russian site
>
>THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
>
>FRANKFURT, Germany — Automaker Volkswagen AG is looking at several
>sites for a possible car plant in Russia, a spokesman said Friday.
>
> »We are researching several sites, » said spokesman Fred
>Baerbock. « There is no decision yet. »
>
>One of the sites is in the town of Stupino, outside Moscow, he said.
>Other aspects also remained undecided, such as whether Volkswagen
>would move forward with full-scale assembly line production or would
>assemble cars from kits supplied from elsewhere.
>
>The facility likely would be a car factory instead of a commercial
>vehicles plant, Baerbock said. He did not specify what models the
>company might make in Russia and said there was no deadline for
>making a decision.
>
>*********************************************************************
>
>Sukhoi to Generate $1.5Bln, Export 40 Fighter Jets in ’04
>
>By Lyuba Pronina
>Staff Writer Sukhoi will export 40 fighter jets this year,
>maintaining its place as Russia’s No. 1 arms exporter, the company
>chief executive said Wednesday.
>
> »The delivery of 40 jets and the parallel modernization of craft for
>the domestic Air Force will allow us to keep our leading position in
>the medium term, » Mikhail Pogosyan, general director of Sukhoi, told
>reporters.
>
>Pogosyan refused to elaborate on either the type of aircraft or the
>countries that will receive them.
>
>China and India have been prime purchasers of Sukhoi fighter jets.
>The details of arms deals are traditionally shrouded in secrecy and
>subject to guesswork by analysts.
>
>China has yet to receive 24 naval Su-30MK2s from a 2003 contract and
>Vietnam four Su-30MKs, said Konstantin Makiyenko, deputy head of the
>Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. Among the 40
>planes, Pogosyan must also be counting the 10 Su-30MKIs to be
>delivered to India later this year by privately owned Irkut,
>Makiyenko said.
>
>Additionally, about nine Su-24s remain to be delivered to Algeria
>from a 2000 contract for 22 jets, said Marat Kenzhetayev, an expert
>at the Center for Arms Control.
>
>Pogosyan refused to comment on a report in Jane’s Defense Weekly
>earlier this year that Sukhoi is close to finalizing a new deal with
>China for another 24 Su-30MK2s.
>
>Last year a total of 36 Sukhoi jets were exported, including 12 Su-
>30MKIs delivered to India by Irkut, which also manufactures the
>plane.
>
>Last year Sukhoi and Irkut reported earnings of $1.5 billion and
>$500 million, respectively. This year Sukhoi expects revenues to
>remain at the same level.
>
>Work continues on the next-generation combat fighter, Pogosyan said,
>with designs to be presented to the Air Force later this year.
>Research on an unmanned combat aerial vehicle is also continuing, he
>added.
>
>Last year Sukhoi agreed with France’s Dassault Aviation and European
>Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. to cooperate on developing fifth-
>generation jets and unmanned aircraft. Pogosyan said that it will
>take another year for Sukhoi to decide on the scope of its
>cooperation with the Europeans.
>
>The creation of the Unified Aircraft-building Corp., which is to
>bring Sukhoi, Irkut, MiG, Ilyushin and Tupolev under one roof, is
>stalled, Pogosyan said.
>
> »There is no single position on it, » he said. « The integration of
>the industry … has to be tied to concrete products. »
>