Russian defense orders from African countries amount to $14 billion, with $3 billion coming from sub-Saharan countries, while $11 billion is from North Africa.
This was revealed by Dmitry Shugaev, the director of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC), on Wednesday, during the Army-2021 forum.
“After the Russia-Africa summit, there was such a definite push. If we take Africa as a whole, we can talk about $14 billion in the total portfolio.
“If we take South of the Sahara, we have $3 billion in portfolio,” he said.
Russia’s main partners in North Africa were Algeria and Egypt.
Deliveries to Africa account for 30-40 per cent of the total volume of Russian arms exports, Shugaev said.
“Our defense industry cooperation with African countries has been developing in a stable and constructive manner over the past five years.
“On average, the annual volume of exports of Russian military products to this region remains at the level of 30-40 per cent of our total arms exports,” he said.
Shugaev said in sub-Saharan Africa, the greatest demand was for helicopters of the Mi family (such as Mi-8/17 and Mi-24/35).
The aircraft of the Sukhoi and MiG families, Pantsir-C1 and Tor-M2E air defense systems, as well as armoured vehicles (in particular, BTR-80, T-72, T-90S).
In the countries of North Africa, Russian small arms (Kalashnikov assault rifles), air defense systems, naval equipment, MiG, Su and Il aircraft, and electronic warfare are in demand.