Russia, Italy To Develop Modern Patrol Aircraft

Russia and Italy today announced that the two nations have signed a cooperation agreement at the Farnborough 2012 to jointly build modernize patrol aircraft. Russia’s arms developer Rosoboronexport and Italy’s Finmeccanica group signed the deal to develop a new aircraft based on a Russian-made aircraft to be fitted with Italian-made navigation, communications and IFF systems and weapons, including lightweight torpedoes from WASS, a Finmeccanica group company. “This is an agreement on the promotion of products for third countries. Italian equipment will be installed on Russian-made patrol and special-purpose aircraft,” Rosoboronexport deputy chief Alexander Mikheyev said. "It took three years to prepare the agreement. We hope that this product will be adapted to enterprises affiliated with the Rostekhnologii state corporation,” he added.