Russia world's 2nd largest weapons exporter: Rosoboronexport

Russia is the world's second-largest exporter of weapons and military hardware in recent years with a 17 per cent share of the global market, Russia's sole state intermediary agency for exports and imports of defence-related products Rosoboronexport said on Monday.

"Over the past five years, the company's exports accounted for 15 per cent of world exports of military products, and Russia's total share was about 17 per cent," Xinhua news agency cited a Rosoboronexport statement as saying.

Rosoboronexport managed to enlarge the value of orders for its products to $45 billion in the first half of this year from $42 billion previously, the statement said.

The greatest demand for Russian military products in 2016 was shown by countries of North Africa and Asia.

The head of Rosoboronexport said the use of weapons in real combat conditions contributed to the growing demand for the S-400 surface-to-air missile systems, Su-35 and Su-32 fighter jets, as well as Iskander-E operational-tactical missile system, the portable Verba anti-aircraft missile system and a number of other weapons and military equipment.

--IANS

py/vt