The Hindu : Old Russian arms `stand up' to U.S. weapons

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 01, 2003

International

International

Old Russian arms `stand up' to U.S. weapons

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW MARCH 31. The war in Iraq may help boost Russian defence exports, experts said pointing to the confident performance of old Soviet weapons against far more advanced U.S. and British hardware. ``Being at least two generations ahead of Saddam Hussein's inventory, American missiles, aircraft and armour are being hit by obsolete but still highly reliable anti-aircraft and anti-tank systems of Soviet origin supplied to Iraq in the 1970s and 1980s,'' said Alex Vaskin of the Indo-Russian Security Forum.

"Also, Russian weapons, such as the famed Kalashnikov rifles, are far less sensitive to desert heat and sand storms than sophisticated U.S. arms.'' Soviet-made weapons account for 80 per cent of Iraq's armoury. Before the U.N. arms embargo was imposed in 1990, Iraq was the biggest buyer of Soviet defence hardware. Half of its arsenals were destroyed in the 1991 Gulf War, but it still had 2,200 tanks, 200 multiple rocket launchers, over 100 air-defence missile launchers and 700 anti-aircraft guns. Iraq has claimed to have destroyed dozens of U.S. and British tanks, aircraft and helicopters in the first few days of the war and though the allied command has admitted to far fewer losses, it conceded having met with fierce resistance.

``Most probably, Apaches helicopter gunships and Tornado warplanes are being downed by vintage S-75 and S-125 surface-to-air missiles, developed way back in the 1960s and still operational in about 30 countries, including India,'' said Dr. Vaskin. "If Iraq had the improved version, Pechora-2M, effective both against planes and cruise missiles, few allied planes would have made it back to their bases.'' The U.S. has accused Russian companies of illegally providing Iraq with new weapons, specifically the deadly Kornet anti-tank missiles, night-vision goggles and satellite signal jammers blinding U.S. missiles.

Russia has denied the charges, while experts said the U.S. military was just venting its frustration over the losses its hardware was taking from old Soviet arms. ``If Iraq had our Kornet laser-guided anti-tank missiles in any large numbers, the U.S. ground forces would have suffered far greater losses,'' said Arkady Shipunov, chief designer of the KBP company, identified by Washington as one of the suspected weapon suppliers to Iraq. Experts said Iraqi troops were knocking off U.S. and British armour with obsolete Konkurs and Fagot anti-tank projectiles supplied years before the sanctions, while old Soviet T-72 tanks showed their mettle against U.S. Abrams. The solid perfomance of old Soviet arms in Iraq, especially in contrast with recurrent failures of American hardware and `smart' weapons, should stimulate interest in newest Russian defence hardware, experts said.

``With Russian weapons proving a key factor behind Iraq's ability to stand up to technologically far superior allied forces, our defence exporters may get a new competitive edge in international arms markets,'' said the former Deputy Prime Minister and head of the arms exports commission, Alexander Shokhin.

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