Moscow - In a rare case of buying foreign defense items for its military, Russia has acquired 12 UAVs from Israel for $53 million, the deputy head of the Russian governmental Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation, Vyacheslav Dzilkarn, said June 22.
The UAVs have not yet been delivered, Dzilkarn told the official RIA Novosti news agency.
He said that the main goal of the purchase was to study Israeli technology in order to build drones in Russia.
"We must take their know-how and put it to practical use," Dzilkarn said.
The remark irked Israeli defense officials who told Israel's Jerusalem Post newspaper in comments published June 23 that Israel would not sell Russia its most advanced drones.
"We have a responsibility to safeguard our ingenious technology," an unidentified Israeli defense official was quoted as saying. "We were aware of this possibility, even though it was not said explicitly until now."
Russia will receive two heavy drones and 10 small ones, Dzirkaln said, without specifying the models.
In February, the Russian General Staff tasked two Russian companies - Irkut and Vega - with developing new tactical reconnaissance drones.
Russia started talks with Israel about the purchase of the UAVs after the August war with Georgia, during which Tbilisi operated Israeli-made drones. Russian top military officials had been blaming the Russian aviation companies with failure to come up with effective drones for the military.
From the very beginning, Russian officials, including Anatoly Isaikin, the head of the Russian official arms export monopoly, Rosoboronexport, have been making it clear that the Israeli drones will be bought in small numbers and will not be commissioned by the Russian Army. Instead, they argued, the drones will be used to study how they are being deployed.
The Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program is ready to test a few components that soldiers may have in their hands by 2010.
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