Mistral contract to be signed in concise form

03.06.2011 The Russian-French delivery contract for 4 Mistral class assault landing ships will be signed till June 21, 2011 although in concise form, writes Vedomosti referring to a source in defense industry.

The document will refer to further supplementary protocols wherever the issues are disputable. They will be coordinated additionally.

The contract will provide delivery of two readymade Mistral ships to Russia and construction of other two helicopter carriers at Russian shipyards. The ships will be sold along with tactical data system Senit-9 which France did not want to install in exported Mistrals. However, Russia will receive basic version of this system. Parties have not agreed upon price parameters and the scope of technology transfer so far.

As was reported on May 26, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy came to terms regarding the contract signing dates. Reportedly, it should be tied until June 21, 2011 when Russian premier Vladimir Putin is to visit Paris and attend the G8 summit. Overall cost of four Mistrals is preliminarily evaluated as EUR 2 bln.