On April 21, 2022, the Czech defense holding company Omnipol bought from the Russian company Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company all 100% of the shares of the Czech aircraft company Aircraft Industries, which is engaged in the production of light transport aircraft L-410. The "stimulus" for the russians to sell this company was, in particular, Western sanctions. This was reported by the press service of Omnipol itself.
This event is undoubtedly painful for the Russian defense industry, even if it is lost in the context of more global events. The Russian Air Force has 27 L-410 military transport aircraft at once, each can take up to 1.5 tons or up to 20 people on board.
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Now this air fleet is left without regular supplies of components. And this means that soon the russians will be forced to lay up all their L-410. Moreover, they have now lost one of their sources of income for defense exports.
Following the results of 9 months of 2021, the Czech Republic suddenly found itself in the top 3 buyers of products of the russian defense industry for the amount of 706 million dollars. Such statistics were published by russian news resource newizv.ru citing RBC (russian bussines consulting group). The Czech Republic allegedly needed supplies in groups 93 (weapons, ammunition) and 88 (aircraft, parts for it). And it seems that among these supplies were, in particular, spare parts for up to six L-410 aircraft, which are in the ranks of the Czech Air Force.
By the way, for the world arms market there is a unique situation when one special exporter company owns two aircraft companies at once. In addition to Aircraft Industries, Omnipol also owns Aero Vodochody, a manufacturer of the L-39 family of aircraft and their modifications, including the L-39NG and L-159NG.
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