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Iran negotiating to buy radars from European countries

Business Materials 20 December 2014 12:16 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.20

By Fatih Karimov - Trend:

Iran is negotiating to buy radars from 3 European companies, head of the Iranian Airports Organization, Mohammad Ali Ilkhani, said.

Ilkhani said that "three companies from France, Italy, and Spain were negotiating with us to sell radars and navigation systems for our airports," Iran's Mehr news agency reported on Dec. 20.

"It is estimated that we need $250-$300 million to renovate airports' navigation systems," he said. "Radars which had been imported 10-15 years ago from France do not meet the country's needs, so we should make more investment over the next three years."

The U.S.-led sanctions on aircraft and spare parts exports to Iran have left the Iranian airlines saddled with not only some of the oldest fleet in the Middle East, but in the world.

The country needs at least 300 operational airplanes, while currently the country has only about 150, each of which is averagely 20 years old.

While Iran has attempted to kick start its own commercial aviation manufacturing industry and has also sourced aircraft from Russia and Ukraine, its efforts to acquire Western-made aircraft and spare parts have largely failed due to sanctions.

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