Cuba: Section 2 - Market Overview

摘要

In 1990, Cuba could have been said to possess Latin America's best equipped, if not most technologically up-to-date, armed forces. However, the quality of the country's inventory has since eroded drastically due to maintenance shortfalls. Cuba has been unable to pay market prices for spare parts after growing accustomed to the previous "friendship" prices offered by the Soviet Union/Warsaw Pact. Russia now seeks to sell military equipment to Cuba at market prices. With limited cash resources, even military training has suffered. Despite the perceived need to counter the purported threat of a U.S. invasion as the basis for maintaining a highly capable force level, the country's continued economic constriction cannot support weapons procurement. Cuba has found it increasingly difficult to maintain its massive inventory - let alone procure new equipment. Although Cuba says it has moved much of its equipment into a controlled storage, most of its aircraft, ships, and vehicles are unusable due to normal degradation, lack of fuel, and lack of spare parts. Moscow has agreed to write off part of Cuba's $30 billion debt and to offer the nation a 10-year financing package for the remaining debt. In exchange, Cuba has committed to leasing $650 million worth of aircraft from Russia. The deal was reached during Russian Prime Minister Dimitri Medvedev's visit to Havana in February 2013. Under the deal, Havana will lease eight aircraft from Russia, including three An-158s, three Il-96-400s, and two Tu-204SMs. The Il-96-400s will be converted from the cargo version to the passenger configuration prior to their transfer. Under the agreement, Moscow will also supply parts for other, unspecified Cuban aircraft.