avionics.--Stephen V Cole

Russian missile contractor Vympel is reportedly close to a deal to sell the R77 (AA-12 Adder) to both India and China. The Chinese plan to buy 100 R77E (the export version) for evaluation and eventually build the missiles under license to arm its Russian-built Su-30 fighters. India wants to buy the missile for its MiG-29s and even for the MiG-21s refurbished to MiG-93 standards. Malaysia has tested the missile but has made no move to buy it. Vympel has built only 200 of the missiles, and has used half of them in tests. The Russian Air Force does not plan to field the R77 until 2004. The Russian Air Force, now armed with R27 (AA-10 Alamo) missiles which have a comparable range (70-110km for R27, 75km for R77), has only a few aircraft with the improved fire control needed to use the R77.--Stephen V