Military Seeks French Helicopter Carrier

Russia's top general said Wednesday that the military wants to buy a French helicopter carrier, has deployed advanced air defense systems on the border with North Korea and will press ahead in developing the beleaguered Bulava missile. Colonel General Nikolai Makarov, the chief of the General Staff, also said negotiations have resumed with the United States to set up a Moscow-based joint control center to track missile launches. Makarov said the Navy would buy a Mistral-class helicopter carrier capable for carrying 16 helicopters, 40 tanks or up to 900 troops and then jointly produce with France three or four additional carriers in Russian shipyards. "Before the year's end, we plan to obtain contract agreements with a French company allowing the construction and purchase of this ship," Makarov told reporters in the Mongolian capital, Ulan Bator, where he was traveling with President Dmitry Medvedev. France's Navy has two of the carriers in service, and one more is under construction at the Chantiers de Saint-Nazaire dockyards. Speculation that the military was interested in buying the helicopter carrier, which costs about $1 billion, first surfaced in Vedomosti and Kommersant last month, but Russian officials denied the reports. Several defense analysts have questioned the expediency of such a costly purchase in the name of national security. Any military conflicts likely to involve Russia would be with its neighbors, which would require land troops and equipment rather than a sea vessel. Makarov also said the military has put a division of its most advanced S-400 Triumf air defense systems in service in the Far East to intercept possible "unsuccessful launches of North Korean missiles and to guarantee that fragments of this missile don't fall on Russian territory." A S-400 division comprises four to six missile systems that can track and destroy aircraft and missiles at the range of up to 400 kilometers. North Korea caused international outrage by conducting a nuclear test in May, followed by weeks of test launches of short- and medium-range missiles. In 2006, during similar test launches, a North Korean missile veered off course and reportedly splashed into Russian coastal waters near the Far Eastern port of Nakhodka. "We are concerned that North Korea's testing field, including for nuclear devices, is located quite near the Russian border," Makarov said Wednesday.