The State Department forgives civilians

Sukhoi's subsidiary will not suffer from sanctions against the parent company

The Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (SCAC) has received assurances from the US State Department that its civil projects are not subject to sanctions imposed by the US authorities on its parent company, Aviation Holding Corporation (AHC) Sukhoi. US GSS suppliers continue to fulfill their contractual obligations.

Svetlana Isaeva, Vice President for Marketing of the State Aircraft, said yesterday at the Airshow China-2006 air show that the composition of the participants in the international project to create the Superjet-100 regional aircraft, which is being carried out by the State Aircraft, has not changed after the US State Department imposed sanctions against Sukhoi in August of this year. . Then the US government accused seven companies from four countries (Cuba, India, North Korea and Russia) of involvement in the supply of equipment and technology to Iran for the production of weapons of mass destruction. Two companies were included in the list of “violators” from Russia: AHC Sukhoi and FSUE Rosoboronexport. According to the decision of the State Department, US government agencies, as well as companies receiving orders from the American government, were prohibited from doing business with both for two years.

Both AHC and Rosoboronexport stated then that they do not have direct access to the American market, and therefore cannot suffer from sanctions. Naturally, they rejected accusations of cooperation with Iran's nuclear projects. Informally, representatives of the two companies said that the State Department's irritation was most likely explained by the too successful sale of 24 Su-30 fighters to Venezuela - this contract was signed a month before the sanctions.

GSS could have suffered real damage from the sanctions, since this company, unlike its parent AHC, has partners in America. SCAC is implementing its regional aircraft project with technical assistance from the American company Boeing. And among the 20 foreign suppliers of the project there are several other leading American companies - Hamilton Standard (electrical systems), Goodrich (chassis and brakes), Honeywell (avionics). After the announcement of the sanctions, fears arose that the SCAC would have to look for new suppliers of these components. According to Ms. Isaeva, the State Department allowed old partners to continue participating in the Superjet-100 project.

Yesterday, Michel Dechelotte, CEO of Power Jet, a joint venture between the French company Snecma and the Russian NPO Saturn, also announced that the problem of American sanctions had been overcome. This joint venture is developing the SaM-146 engine for the Superjet-100 aircraft. Mr. Dechelotte said that as a result, Power Jet had problems with its supplier of FADEC, the engine control computer system. It was supposed to be provided by Honeywell. “I don’t want to go into details, but we have completely resolved this issue,” Mr. Dechelotte said yesterday.

Mikhail KUKUSHKIN, Zhuhai