Russia in full swing in the homeland security market

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Russia is offering different countries military hardware including for homeland security , in direct competition with Israel.

“Russia was not in this market until recently. Now things have changed” an Israeli source said.

Finland has opened a potentially significant dialogue with Russia with the goal of identifying avenues for industrial cooperation.

i-HLS Israel Homeland Security

Apart from the potential for weapons purchases and sales, future cooperation could increase Finland’s involvement in providing subcontracting capacity to Russia’s military modernization programs.

According to Defense News the offer of closer industrial cooperation was made on May 29 during meetings here between Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Finnish officials headed by Defense Minister Carl Haglund.

Russia regards Finland as potentially a strong market for combat aircraft, missile systems and infantry systems, Shoigu said at a joint news conference with Haglund.

The Russian defense minister conceded that Russia’s ambitious military modernization programs, slated to run until 2020, are testing the ability of the country’s defense-industrial sector to deliver weapons and material under set deadlines.

The Finnish government is examining a broad range of measures to attract foreign investment to support a flagging export sector, weakened by a fall in global demand for Finnish products. It has reacted positively to the prospect of rekindling military trade with Russia.

“We will examine the potential for cooperation. We should have a much better idea of what direction this process will go in a year or so,” Haglund said. “The Finnish military needs to modernize and acquire new equipment, including for the Air Force, over the next 10 years.”

Finland’s defense procurement and military-industrial trade with Russia failed to recover from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, said Finnish Defense Ministry spokesman Jyrki Iivonen.

As a non-NATO country bordering Russia, Finland’s defense industry is constantly looking for opportunities to expand business there, said Tuija Karanko, secretary general of the Association of Finnish Defense and Aerospace Industries, which represents the country’s 100 biggest defense companies.

The Israeli source said that Finland is just one example but the Russians are “almost everywhere”