Russia, China to ink deal on amphibious aircraft

MOSCOW: Russia is to supply state-of-the-art amphibious anti-submarine aircraft to China in a multi-million dollar deal to be shortly inked by the two countries, a media report said here.

Russia's main arms exporting agency Rosobornexport is to sign a USD 600 million deal with China later this year for the supply of amphibious Beriyev Be-200 aircraft equipped with 'Sea Dragon' suite capable of pinpointing and targetting enemy submarines with high precision, 'Kommersant' daily reported.

The Beryev Be-200 aircraft, built by IRKUT Corporation, can land and take off from the surface of the sea.

The IRKUT Corporation has been building a limited number of the fire-fighting version of the aircraft for the Emergency Situations Ministry at its Irkutsk plant in Siberia.

However, following the deal with China, the corporation is planning to move the assembly of these aircraft to its Taganorg plant in the south Russian region of Rostov-on-Don, the report said.