RUSSIAN, UKRAINIAN ARMS SALES.

Russian companies apparently failed to make any major new sales at the recent Paris Air Show. However, the state-owned arms export company Rosvooruzhenie did announce yesterday from New Delhi that India had decided to buy 2 Russian-built Kilo-class diesel submarines. The subs were described as new Project 636 versions of the Kilo, which are more fuel efficient and quieter to operate than the 8 older Kilos already in the Indian inventory. Diesel-powered submarines will probably continue to be one of Russia’s major weapons exports, an area in which it will have to compete with Germany and France for foreign sales. There are no American shipyards building diesel-powered boats. Russia’s Rubin Design Bureau, which developed the Kilo, is now working on an even quieter Amur-class submarine which it hopes to export. (Itar-Tass, June 23)

Russian arms traders have been annoyed by the competition from other former Soviet republics,. and Ukraine appears to have once again landed a valuable export contract. A Ukrainian official recently revealed that the Kharkiv Aviation Company had already delivered 2 An-74T-200 light military transports to Iran. Although the official would not say how large the deal was, he suggested that future deliveries would keep the Kharkiv plant busy "for several years." He reported that the aircraft were specifically equipped to air-drop military equipment. (Aviation Week and Space Technology, June 23)

Brazauskas Hints He will not Seek Reelection.