MAPO LICENSES IRAN TO BUILD AIRCRAFT ENGINES.

Iran’s state aircraft company will build 60 TV7-117 jet engines under license from the Moscow Aircraft Production Association [MAPO], maker of MiG fighters and Kamov military and civilian helicopters. The agreement, announced on May 16, is said to be worth $145 million. MAPO sources said that Iran would use the engines to power An-140 transports recently ordered from Ukraine. (Reuter, Interfax, May 16)

The deal is likely to raise eyebrows in Washington as an example of the transfer of "dual-use" technology to Iran. In 1993 President Boris Yeltsin pledged to cut off arms shipments to Iran once deals already concluded had been fulfilled. The latest contract was said to have been concluded within the terms of an April 1997 "agreement on military-technological cooperation" between Russia and Iran. While the 60 engines in question might be destined for civilian use, they come from the family of engines that power most of Russia’s military helicopters, including its most modern attack helicopter, the Ka-50 "Black Shark."

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