Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Popovkin said the military has signed a contract to buy an unspecified number of pilotless drones from an Israeli company that he did not identify, RIA-Novosti and Itar-Tass reported.
"I was in Israel and even operated one," Popovkin said.
The deal is worth an estimated $50 million, and the Defense Ministry will buy three different types of drones from Israel's largest defense firm, state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, according to Russian media reports.
An Israeli defense source with knowledge of the deal said the Israel Aerospace Industries sale was the first of its kind to Russia by an Israeli firm.
Israel Aerospace Industries officials declined to comment.
An industry source in Israel said Russian generals were impressed with the drones that Georgia bought from the Jewish state and approached the Israelis shortly after the war last August.
Popovkin said Russia had used a drone called the Tipchak toward the end of the conflict over Georgia's separatist South Ossetia region, but it had "very many problems."
"You could hear it flying from 100 kilometers away," Popovkin said.
And because of flaws in the system that is supposed to identify it to Russian forces as friendly, it was hit by both Georgian and Russian fire, he said.
"It returned all shot up," he said.
Popovkin, who is in charge of procurement, said the Russian military has no plans to use the Israeli drones in combat. It wants to study the technology in an effort to improve its own drones, he said.
He joked that "as for the Israeli pilotless aircraft, we will work on them like the Chinese do" -- a suggestion that China uses military technology that it acquires from other nations to improve its own capabilities.
Georgia used Israeli-made drones before and during the five-day war, in which Russian and South Ossetian forces routed Georgian troops who had launched an offensive in the breakaway region.
Israel's Haaretz daily reported Friday that the deal for the drones went ahead only after Israel received clear signals from Russia that it had no intention of selling S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems to Iran.
Asked if the sale was connected to the S-300, the Israeli defense source agreed that there was a link but gave no further details.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said that budget cuts this year connected to the financial crisis will not affect planned purchases of new weapons for the armed forces.
(AP, Reuters)
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