Russian Navy Refuses To Buy Home-Produced Rescue System

19.10.2011 Russian Navy refused to continue financing of deep-sea diving system being designed by Lazurit bureau (Nizhniy Novgorod) for new-generation Project 21300 rescue ship, told an informed source to Central Navy Portal. As for defense ministry, the reason of refusal is "groundlessly" overrated cost of the system and uncertainty in readiness time.

According to information available to Central Navy Portal, Russian defense ministry considers procurement of British-made diving system instead of domestically produced one. Foreign equipment is less capable (both in versatility and operating depth) than Project 22020 system. According to officials, that would be cheaper and faster. In opinion of the source in Lazurit Design Bureau, bureaucrats don't care about the fact that adaptation of foreign hardware for Russian standards would need additional costs and time comparable to those required for creation of home-produced equipment.

"Finally, import of foreign hardware will inevitably cause growth of costs for its installation and service, as well as need to change the entire algorithm of rescue works. Project of the platform ship would require adaptations too. One would have to pay more for personnel training. Not to speak of the spare parts issue. So, overall price for the imported system might be even higher", pointed out the source.

According to him, it is hard to justify the defense ministry's position. For example, they suddenly demanded to present the ready-to-use system, but failed to finance the project in full. So, works were conducted at the bureau's own expense.

Many politicians affirm that the pricing issue in Russian defense industry is far from settling. Design bureaus and plants hold up prices; primarily, it is a sort of riposte for defense ministry's requirement "not to include inflation component to price".