Maksim covers aerospace developments in Central Asia for Aviation Week. He has worked for Russia's Air Transport Observer magazine and was in charge of several ATO sister aerospace publications after working for the Moscow-based CAST defense think tank.
Maksim has a degree in international relations from MGIMO University, Moscow.
Russia is offering a version of the Club family of cruise missiles that can be packed in a standard cargo container and transported by ship, train or on roadways. Versions of Club are already fitted on the Kilo-class submarine and the Project 1135.6 frigate. The Moscow-based Morinformsystema-AGAT, the designer of Club’s control system, is developing the Club-K container modification. The system would be capable of being used against naval and land targets, depending on which versions of the Novator 3M-54 and 3M-14 missiles were included.
New Delhi and Moscow are moving forward on the procurement of a new aircraft carrier and additional carrier-based fighters following the visit to India of a top-level Russian delegation. However, the delegation could not lock in agreement on other key defense projects.
MOSCOW — Russia is boosting defense cooperation with India, signing several contracts during the visit of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to New Delhi. The two sides finally settled the price increase for modernization of the Vikramaditya aircraft carrier. Russian officials would not reveal the revised price for the ex-Admiral Gorshkov, but Indian press reports quote a figure of $2.33 billion. In 2004 India agreed to take the 44,500-ton carrier for free, paying only $800 million for modernization at Russia’s Severodvinsk-based Sevmash facility.
