Venezuela to Buy More Than $5 Billion in Russian Arms

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Venezuela plans to buy new weaponry from Russia valued at more than $5 billion.

“Our delegation has just returned from Venezuela and the total amount of purchases could exceed $5 billion,” said Putin during a meeting in Moscow on the development of the country’s armaments industry.

The figure includes the $2.2 billion loan that Moscow will provide to Caracas for the acquisition of new Russian weapons, the premier said at a forum on developing Russia’s defense industry.

“The financing sources have already determined the basics and agreed with our partners,” said Putin about the agreements he reached last week with the government of Hugo Chavez during a visit to Caracas.

Venezuela, which since 2005 has purchased $4.4 billion of Russian arms, has become the Russian defense industry’s biggest customer in Latin America prompting expressions of concern from neighboring Colombia and the United States, which provides Bogota with roughly $500 million a year in military aid.

Specifically, Venezuela has already bought 100,000 assault rifles, 24 Su-30MK2 fighter-bombers and 51 helicopters.

In addition, an agreement is in progress to build in Venezuela a plant to manufacture Kalashnikov rifles and another one to make ammunition.

Russian sources say Venezuela now wants to buy three Varshavianka-class diesel submarines, 92 T-72 tanks, several dozen BMP-3 armored vehicles, 10 Mi-28N combat helicopters, Il-114 patrol airplanes and air defense systems.

Caracas is also interested in Mirash patrol boats, Murena-E landing craft and mobile coastal artillery systems capable of sinking vessels up to 130 kilometers (81 miles) away, according to military sources at the Interfax news agency.

Among other offers, Moscow is proposing to Caracas that it buy several dozen An-148 military transport aircraft and Chavez has already announced the acquisition of at least one Be-200 amphibious aircraft to use in putting out forest fires. EFE

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Venezuela plans manufactoring AK-103 assault rifle localy

President Hugo Chavez's plans to build the first Kalashnikov factory in South America are stirring fears Venezuela could start arming his leftist allies in the hemisphere with Russian assault rifles. Chavez denies such ambitions, saying his government bought 100,000 Russian-made AK-103 assault rifles and a license from Moscow to make Kalashnikovs and ammunition to bolster its defenses against "the most powerful empire in history" _ the United States.
Some political opponents and critics suspect Chavez, a former paratrooper, has other intentions, such as providing allies such as Bolivia with arms while forging an anti-Washington military alliance.
"Our president has always had a warlike mentality, but now it appears this mentality is turning into a mission that could easily extend to other parts of Latin America," said William Ojeda, a presidential candidate who hopes to run against Chavez in the December election.
Chavez has said "Venezuelan blood would run" if the United States tried to invade Cuba or Bolivia, though he has not said his government would provide them with weapons.
The Bush administration also is concerned about Chavez's intentions.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday that Venezuela appeared to be in the midst of an "outsized military buildup for a country of that size and the nature of the threats" in the region.
"They've already purchased 100,000 AK-103 assault rifles from Russia. So I'm not quite sure what else they might need a factory for," McCormack said. "It certainly raises serious questions about what their intentions are."
The first 30,000 of those rifles have arrived in Venezuela, with the rest due by year's end.
"If the president says he'll send Venezuelans to defend other Latin American nations, nobody should doubt that he's willing to send them weapons as part of his anti-imperialist vision," Ojeda said.
Ojeda pointed out that Bolivia's new socialist president, Evo Morales, referred to Chavez as his "commander" during a recent ceremony marking the 78th anniversary of the birth of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the revolutionary who was captured and executed in Bolivia 39 years ago.
Chavez has provided a helicopter and pilots to Morales to ferry him around in the weeks ahead of a July vote for a constituent assembly that will rewrite the Bolivian constitution

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Russia lends Chavez $2bn for arms

The S-300 surface-to-air missile is capable of tracking 100 targets at once [AP]     Venezuelan president says deal includes 92 tanks and S-300 surface-to-air missiles. Russia has agreed to lend Venezuela over $2bn to finance the purchase of weapons including tanks and advanced anti-aircraft missiles, Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's president, has said. He said his country, whose finances have suffered this year because of lower crude prices, needed to borrow the money for defence spending to avoid cuts in education and health. "We have to thank the Russian government, which approved a $2.2bn loan for arms spending," Chavez said on his weekly television show. The deal, which was agreed on his trip to Moscow last week, includes orders for 92 tanks and the S-300 missile system, which is capable of shooting down fighter jets and cruise missiles. A spokesman for the US state department said on Monday that Washington is concerned "about Venezuela's stated desire to increase its arms build-up, which we think poses a serious challenge to stability in the Western Hemisphere." Ian Kelly called on Caracas to abide by its its nuclear non-proliferation obligations. Arms race Venezuela has bought over $4bn of weapons from Russia in recent years, including 24 Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets. It was not immediately clear when Venezuela would receive the new weapons or how much they would cost. Critics say Venezuela is sparking an arms race in South America, but Chavez says he is modernising the military for defensive purposes. The country is embroiled in a diplomatic crisis with Colombia over a deal to allow troops from the US access to more bases in the neighbouring country to fight drug traffickers and leftist fighters. Chavez, a fierce critic of US foreign policy, says the Colombian bases plan could be used to launch an attack on Venezuela and increases the risk of war on the continent. "Let me be clear, Venezuela has no plans to invade anybody, or to be aggressive towards anybody," Chavez said on his show. Last year, the former soldier ordered tanks to the border with Colombia in a dispute over a Colombian bombing raid in Ecuadorean territory. Multiple targets Chavez said Venezuela was now buying 92 Russian T-72 tanks along with several types of missiles, including the Buk-M2 and S-300, to build an air-defence system. The S-300, also known as the SA-20, is considered one of the most effective surface-to-air anti-aircraft systems and is capable of tracking 100 targets at once. It can be used with missiles that have a range of about 200km and can engage six targets simultaneously. "With these rockets it's going to be very difficult for foreign planes to come and bomb us," Chavez said. Russia signed a contract in 2007 to supply Iran with the S-300 system but has dragged its feet on delivering the weapons after Washington and Israel expressed fears it would be used to protect nuclear facilities from attack. Last week, Moscow dismissed rumours that a ship supposedly loaded with timber that went missing in the Atlantic in July had really been carrying a cargo of S-300s for Iran. Chavez repeated on Sunday his commitment to developing nuclear power for peaceful purposes with the help of Russia and reiterated he was opposed to nuclear weapons.

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Venezuela will be incorporating several “non-atomic” submarines

Very soon “we will have our submarines cruising” which will be “normal submarines”, with no nuclear capacity at all, pointed out Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, in anticipation of any criticisms “that could suggest such an option”.

“We will be launching our own submersibles. They won’t have atomic bombs, I’m saying so now, so they don’t accuse of us of becoming nuclear”, insisted the Venezuelan leader during his Sunday radio and television program “Aló Presidente”.
“They are normal submarines, they have conventional weapons, radars and all the rest, and a great capacity”, he added.
However he did not give any clue about the origin of the submarines.
Nevertheless it is believed they are Russian built, since their incorporation was begun to be talked about back in 2005.
Apparently they are three diesel-electric powered subs of the “Varshavianka” class, project 636 (‘Kilo’ according to NATO nomenclature), at a cost of over a billion US dollars of which 800 million were financed by Moscow.
The ‘Kilo’ class submersibles are third generation equipped with four 533 mm torpedo launchers and ten missile launchers from cruise Club-S.
These weapons could enable the subs to attack fixed or mobile submerged, coastal or sea surface targets under conditions of intense “radio-electronic” interference.
Currently the Venezuelan navy has two German built submarines U-209, launched in 1975 which were refurbished but are considered of “limited action” for the current scenario.

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First Sukhoi Su-35 Aircraft for Venezuela

 Venezuelan Ambassador to Russia Alexis Navarro Rojas in an interview with Interfax expressed the intentions of his country to negotiate Russian arms deliveries to Venezuela.

"Venezuela needs to renew its arms systems. Several years ago we decided that we won't buy weapons from the United States and that the bulk of new orders will be placed with Russia. Our military experts have studied the parameters of the arms that Russia is offering and concluded that they are the best in the world," the ambassador said.

Rojas said there are several reasons why Venezuela is switching from importing U.S.-made weapons to Russian-made products, including the "aggressive foreign policy of Washington" and "irresponsibility in the fulfillment of contracts."

"The weapons we are getting from Russia come with guarantees of further maintenance services and personnel training," he said.

The Venezuelan government is preparing for talks on the delivery of Su-35 fighters from Russia, Rojas said.

"Our pilots have flown on Su-27 and Su-30 fighters already. They have simply fallen in love with the aircraft. They have also tried piloting Su-35. Now we are waiting for talks to begin," he said.

Russia has already delivered Mi-17 helicopters, which Venezuela is using for transportation and also for border patrols to prevent drug trafficking. The delivery of Mi-26 and Mi-35 helicopters is also expected, Rojas said.

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Venezuela To Get 15 Billion Dollar Arms Including J-10 Jets

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez thrown more than 15 billion U.S. dollars worth of arms procurement bill, which sparked concerns in Latin America.

The article said that Venezuela's purchase of a large number of tanks, helicopters, armored vehicles, submarines and missile systems at an unprecedented rate in history in Latin America to arm themselves.

"New Herald" (El Nuevo Herald), said experts consulted, Chavez spent over 15 billion U.S. dollars worth to strengthen its military power for military procurement, has produced unrest in the region. Analysts warned that the arms purchase along with people doubt, there is no competitive bidding and early course of the study, the way decisions are temporary.

It is learned that Chavez used the funds to purchase these new weapons in the country one of the largest in history, and a large part from the loan; for the military procurement funds may end up more than 15 billion U.S. dollars.

Some analysts said that the funds have been used for arms purchases totaled about 300 billion U.S. dollars; and this figure is Chavez himself expressed the hope that the modernization of the national armed forces in the amount spent.

Closely track the event of a Venezuela and Africa-governmental organization "National Security and Civil Defense Control Association," the report said, the country has received or will receive a large number of mainly by Russia, China and Spain to provide the equipment and military facilities.
These weapons include: 92 medium-sized T-72B1V tanks, 240 infantry fighting vehicles (BMP-3 and BTR-80), 9 submarines, nearly 50 various types of ships, a dozen Su-30MK2 fighters, undetermined number of Chinese J -10 fighters, and nearly 100 Russian helicopter; most of these equipment will be used for combat operations.

The arms procurement bill also includes S-300 air defense missile system, NATO called the SA-20; its ability to track, including cruise missiles, including 100 targets, while 125 miles away from the shooting down of one of the six goals.

Meanwhile, Venezuela is also committed to the establishment in the territory of the military facility; includes a gunpowder factory, a AK-103/AK-104 rifle factory, and 7.6 × 39mm ammunition plant.

In addition, Chavez has purchased 100,000 AK-103/AK-104 rifles, and 5,000 high-precision sniper rifle Dragon Ivanov; addition, there are 1,000 shoulder-fired anti-tank RPG-7V2 rocket launcher with 1000 Igla-S ((SA-24) portable air defense missiles, the latter with the U.S. "Stinger" shoulder-fired missiles similar.

In recent years, Washington has been paying close attention to Venezuela's arms purchases; the U.S. State Department officials have already sold a large number of Russian weapons to South American countries expressed their concern.

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Russia says S-300 deliveries to Venezuela delayed

Deliveries of S-300 missile defense systems to Venezuela have been delayed, but will go ahead, an official at Rosoboronexport, Russia's state-owned arms export monopoly, said on Tuesday.
In November, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that Russia had agreed to lend his country over $4 billion to buy weapons.
"There is a contract with Venezuela but it's not yet being implemented," Rosoboronexport special programs director Nikolai Dimidyuk told reporters.
"Venezuela has rescheduled the dates several times, but now we have agreed on a timeframe for the deliveries," he added.
Venezuela is one of the biggest buyers of Russian arms.

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