Translated material
"Kalashnikov" carbon copy
Russian military developments are being stolen by all and sundry
Not a single international exhibition of weapons and military equipment is complete without Russians seeing their developments, not copied in the best way, on the stands of some countries. AAD -- Africa Aerospace and Defense-2006 was no exception. A number of companies here present Russian developments under their own trademarks and without any reference to Russia.In particular, the Polish group of companies Bumar did this. It is enough to compare two prospectuses - theirs and ours, and it will become clear that the ZU-23 anti-aircraft missile system is one to one identical to the Russian one. The Poles also have the latest Russian modification (two Igla missiles were added). The only way the Polish product differs from ours is the variation of the name: instead of our ZU-23, they have the ZU-23-2KG.
The Poles are also modernizing our BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle with a different combat module. The module, that is, the upper part of the vehicle where the weapon and fire control system are located, is a Polish design, but the chassis is Russian. There are no links again. Once upon a time, the Soviet Union did indeed issue a license to Poland for the production of BMP-1, but the validity period of the document has long passed. “The terms of all licenses issued by the Soviet Union to the Warsaw Pact countries have expired,” Nikolai Dimidyuk, head of the delegation of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rosoboronexport at the exhibition and director of special assignments of the company, explained to Vremya Novostei.
But Russian intellectual property continues to flow into the wrong hands. The Chinese manufacture our Igla man-portable anti-aircraft missile system (MANPADS) and sell it on the foreign market. They copy our Smerch multiple launch rocket system. Moreover, the characteristics are indicated higher than those of the Russian development, although in reality this is far from the case. This undermines the authority of Russian weapons. In addition, it is possible that those who like to copy our weapons may release the same “Igla” without branding. If such a MANPADS gets into the hands of terrorists, Russia will, of course, be blamed. The Chinese are not very embarrassed when they are caught borrowing. At the same time, some of them hint: China buys Russian weapons worth a billion dollars a year, so it’s okay if we take something from you illegally.
It is not only former brothers from the former socialist camp who steal Russian intellectual property. For example, the Canadian company Newcon, which has a branch in the Republic of South Africa, is demonstrating a weapon sight with a night vision device, as announced, of the third generation. The Canadians even copied the photo of the sight from the Russian prospectus - the angle of the slots on all eight screws is the same. The Canadians entered only their markings. And thus they “clicked” to the leading three countries that set the level of night vision devices - Russia, the Netherlands and the USA.
Our competitors also sin by producing components for Russian weapons - hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers, machine guns, and Kalashnikov assault rifles. Russian developments pop up at other people's stands and at other arms exhibitions. Poland demonstrates our radar station, the Bulgarian company Arsenal demonstrates a shot for the RPG-7 hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher, artillery ammunition. In Paris, the Russians visited the Arsenal stand. Seeing them, the owners simply ran away, not wanting to explain themselves.
Unfair competition manifests itself in a variety of forms. The US company Raytheon advertised its capabilities in the fight against the Russian Yakhont missile. In the prospectus, the Russian rocket was depicted with the logo of the manufacturer - NPO Mashinostroenie. When the Russians proved that it was impossible to hit the Yakhont as easily as the Americans showed, they responded by muttering something incomprehensible about the fight against terrorists. “Yakhont” is a supersonic missile; not a single air defense system is guaranteed to work against it. True, the Americans removed advertising brochures in English, but at other exhibitions they returned to them again - in Spanish. By the way, in the USA, in the state of Nevada, there is a plant of a Bulgarian company producing Kalashnikov assault rifles.
None of the copies live up to the original. There is a known case when a BPM, illegally modernized by one of the European companies, forgot how to swim and began to sink. A shell exploded in the copied tank, killing the crew. As specialists from Rosoboronexport told Vremya Novostey, “in one high-tech country they tried to counterfeit the MiG-25 aircraft.” Externally, the car looked like a Russian one, but it didn’t fly quite like that. And the counterfeiters were forced to turn to Russian developers for help.
Due to the theft of intellectual property for Kalashnikov weapons alone, Russia loses up to $2 billion annually. Suing thieves is difficult, since there are no clear international legal acts, and the procedure is very expensive - sometimes more than lost profits. Nevertheless, there are changes. Until recently, the Czech company advertised its capabilities for modernizing the Russian T-72 tank, but they were not at the exhibition in Cape Town. There are also no Israelis who dabbled in copying Russian weapons. So Russia’s diplomatic efforts are gradually yielding results, and the arms trade is entering a civilized direction.
Russians are still behaving very correctly towards copyers. They even offer to cooperate legally in order to obtain mutual benefits - copies are sold at dumping prices. It is encouraging that the UN is working on a program to combat counterfeit small arms and relevant international legal acts.