Pakistan Military Watch

Shipyards of United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) are capable to build Mistral-typecarrier after obtaining specific technologies from France; however,selection of certain shipyard will be made upon receipt of applicationfrom Russian defense ministry, said Vice Premier Igor Sechin, topdirector of USC behind the scenes of St. Petersburg InternationalEconomic Forum.

"United Shipbuilding Corporation and Russian shipyard participating innegotiations are basically capable to execute the order of defenseministry [to build the helicopter carrier] once such order is placed",Sechin said having added that the ministry had not set the task so far.

According to him, it is necessary to comprehend which details areessential for the defense ministry to be implemented in the project;afterwards, Russian shipyards will be assessed whether they are capableto take part in the project. As for Sechin, an option is also possiblethat "adequate foreign partner" (probably, French one) would beinvolved.

"Once we have a task from defense ministry it would be clear what theyneed. So we could react adequately – either execute by ourselves orcall upon partners", concluded Sechin.