MOSCOW, July 11 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Sukhoi aircraft manufacturer said on Friday it plans to equalize the share of civilian and military aviation in its production portfolio by 2015.
Sukhoi, which is part of Russia's United Aircraft Corporation, currently sells only military aircraft. It is well-known for its Su-family fighters, including the new Su-35 Flanker-E multirole fighter, which successfully completed its first demonstration flight on Monday.
"Sukhoi is being transformed into a diversified company, which produces both civilian and military aircraft," general director Mikhail Pogosyan said.
"Starting in 2015, the company's production portfolio will be represented by an equal share of commercial and military products," he was quoted as saying in a company press release.
The first commercial product that will help the company to achieve this goal is the Superjet 100 family of medium-range passenger aircraft. The Sukhoi Design Bureau developed these in cooperation with major American and European aviation corporations, including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace, and Honeywell.
Sukhoi plans to manufacture at least 700 Superjet 100s, and intends to sell 35% of them to North America, 25% to Europe, 10% to Latin America, and 7% to Russia and China.
So far the company has secured 73 solid orders for the aircraft and announced on Friday that it would sign a contract for another 30 planes with an undisclosed Russian carrier on July 15 during the Farnborough 2008 air show, which starts next week in the south of England.
Pogosyan said on Friday that Sukhoi is planning to export military equipment worth $10-15 billion in the next decade.
"In the next 10 years we will export military equipment worth about $10-15 billion," Mikhail Pogosyan said in an interview with Russia Today news channel.
Sukhoi will focus on the production of the Su-35 fighter and a fifth-generation combat aircraft, he said.
The company said previously the Su-35 would enter service with the Russian Air Force in 2011 and that the new fighter aircraft, tentatively designated Sukhoi PAK FA or T-50, would join the Air Force in 2013.
Sukhoi is planning to export more than 40 combat aircraft in 2008. In 2007, the company exported about 50 Su-30 aircraft to Algeria, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Venezuela.
Sukhoi's 2007 pre-tax sales totaled more than 50 billion rubles ($2 billion).
