"Russia still expecting Mistral LHD by late Oct/Nov" Topic

Seems the French are still planning to transfer the first Mistral class LHD to the Russians in late October or November.

The ship, Vladivostok, has completed sea trials with a some Russian naval staff apparently participating

en.ria.ru/military_news/20140930/193459009/Official-Russia-France-May-Sign-Transfer-Act-for-Mistral-Warship.html

en.ria.ru/russia/20140912/192896867/Russian-Sailors-to-Take-Part-in-Mistral-Warship-Sea-Trials-in-France.html

Are the Russians having problems building vessels?

Sort of like the US selling iron scrap to Japan so it can be dropped on its own battleships.

On the other hand, it has radio controlled explosive bolts holding it together…

As far as I am aware the aim of construction in France and then part builds in Russian is to allow Russian Military ship building to update their design and construction skill set to modern western standards.

A bit like the Japanese and British pre WW1

A modern take on the Second Gulf War joke; what do you call a Frenchman advancing on Moscow? A salesman. Salut y'all!

Bruce the Texas Grognard

That's funny, I thought the French government had stopped the sale…

So did I.

But since when have nasty and illegal violent actions stopped the French from selling weapons (Libya, Syria, Iraq, Morroco, Pakistan)?

Saddam's most potent jet fighters and SAMs in 1991 were French Mirage F1 and Rolands (1 bagged an A-10 in 2003).

Holland tried to play both sides, under US/EU pressure he decided to stop transfer of the vessels to Russian Navy, saying that they will be taking into account development in Ukraine.
Russia politely reminded them on the contract penalty clauses, looks like the contract was properly negotiated, so France would have to pay more penalties than the contract value. Also, some parts of the ship were built in S-Petersburg, and our former NATO rep Rogozin, known for his black humour wrote that in case of contract breaking Russia wants them back ;)
Also, after this decision India decided to kick French from the tender on fighter jets, as unreliable supplier.
Therefore Holland switched on rear shift and said that the contract is not broken, h=just suspended.
A lot of people in our navy were not sure that we really need these Mistrals, so with a lot of knowledge obtained, and possible money back, we may indeed live without them…

Thanks for the update, Barin.

Looks like the Russians learned a lesson about procurement contracts!

Looks like the Russians learned a lesson about procurement contracts!

Shame they don't reciprocate with their maintenance and spare support contracts.

In any case the West is slowly pushing themselves out of arms markets.

If I was running a third rate craphole, I'd sooner buy Chinese or Russian gear just cause it's got no strings attached.

Buying Western is actually signing away defence sovereignty to the West.

Thomas, service & maintenance contracts are a complicated issue. Russian customers themselves hate the equipment, that has to be serviced by specific company, or specific materials. I've seen several documents, where end users were demanding from head offices of the companies like Gazprom/Lukoil/Rosneft to decline proposals by the companies, who're tying guarantees with start-up and service by companies'own service personnel.
When accepting military equipment into service, easy maintenance and possibility of repairing it by medium-skilled personnel was always an important factor. AK is a perfect exmple of it, only recently the army finally traded some of the maintenance issues for precision&shoting distance.
In Ukraine, rebels were able to make fast repairs on captured equipment. However, medium-skilled Russian personnel is different to medium-skilled african or arab specialists. In some countries, like Syria, where a lot of Russian advisors were present at certain times, locals are making a good job on repairs, while in Lybia they just neglected a huge arsenal.
The stuff like modern MIGs, SU, or advanced SAMs are not too easy to maintain, and we're not good yet in providing a proper service. Chinese equipment will probably fall apart before it will reuqire a serious maintenance (ok, I have some really good Chinese things, but they're an exception ;))