UZBEKISTAN'S "TAPOICH" AVIATION PLANT REQUESTS

C O N F I D E N T I A L TASHKENT 000116

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SCA/CEN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/29/2018
TAGS: MASS ECON PGOV PREL US UZ
SUBJECT: UZBEKISTAN'S "TAPOICH" AVIATION PLANT REQUESTS
U.S. ASSISTANCE

REF: A. 07 TASHKENT 1324

B. 07 TASHKENT 2121

C. 07 TASHKENT 438

Classified By: Poloff Steven Prohaska for reasons 1.4 (b, d).


1. (C) Summary: On January 23, the Ambassador visited the
Chkalov Tashkent Aircraft Production Company (TAPOiCh) and
met with officials including Director-General Sultanov.
Sultanov requested U.S. assistance in facilitating the
transfer of U.S.-made auxiliary power units to TAPOiCh, as
these parts are critical to the sale of the factory's Il-114
aircraft and current export control regulations are
apparently preventing TAPOiCh from procuring these. Not
receiving these parts would be financially disastrous to
TAPOiCh, he said. He assured the Ambassador that if these
parts could be recategorized as dual-use rather than military
items, they would be used for their intended, peaceful
purpose. Moreover, the Embassy could conduct end-use
monitoring to ensure that this is the case. Post believes
this request warrants serious consideration; a number of U.S.
companies benefit from cooperation with TAPOiCh, and
providing assistance to the factory could yield further
positive results in our bilateral relationship. End summary.


2. (C) On January 23, the Ambassador visited the Chkalov
Tashkent Aircraft Production Company (TAPOiCh)--the largest
aircraft production facility in Central Asia--on the
outskirts of Tashkent where he met with Director-General
Sultanov and other TAPOiCh officials. Over the course of a
tour of the plant, Sultanov explained that responsibility for
the assembly of Il-76 transport aircraft would eventually be
transferred from TAPOiCh to Ulyanovsk in Russia. He was
skeptical of Russian claims that Ulyanovsk could start
production of these in 2010, claiming that Russia could not
pull this off until at least 2015. Russia was putting
pressure on the company to produce only Il-114 regional
commuter and cargo aircraft, he said. (Comment: Uzbekistan
probably will in fact have to stop production of Il-76
transport aircraft when Russia is ready to take over, as
Uzbekistan depends on Russia to sell it needed parts for
these aircraft. This will end the historic production run in
which all of the world's approximately 1000 Il-76s were
assembled in Tashkent. End comment.)


3. (C) Sultanov had two pressing, related requests for the
U.S. Government, which also were enumerated in a draft letter
he provided addressed to the Director of Defense Trade
Controls in the State Department's Bureau of
Political-Military Affairs. First, he hoped that the U.S.
Government could help facilitate the sale of eight auxiliary
power units (APUs) for the Il-114s from the U.S. firm
Honeywell (formerly known as Allied Signal) to TAPOiCh, so
TAPOiCh could fulfill its contract to deliver eight more
Il-114 aircraft to Uzbekistan Airways by the end of 2008.
Second, he asked that the U.S. help to redesignate the
generator and associated parts from military items on the
U.S. Munitions List to dual-use items. The problem, he said,
is that there are export restrictions on these parts, which
it turns out (the firm learned recently) appear on the
International Trafficking in Arms Regulations (ITAR) as items
requiring an export license. Recategorizing these items
would allow Honeywell to supply this power unit to Uzbekistan
over the long term. He assured the Ambassador that the
components would not be separated from the APUs, that they
would be used only for their intended purpose (the letter
said that the government would provide guarantees of this),
and that they would have no objection if State asked the
Embassy to conduct end-use verification. Not being able to
use these power units in their Il-114s would be disastrous
for TAPOiCh, he said.


4. (C) Sultanov spoke highly of the equipment, noting that

TAPOiCh's efforts to find a comparable power unit from other
U.S. and European firms had been fruitless. Sultanov
provided booklets on the Il-114 aircraft, with Western parts
cited prominently. These include U.S.-made avionics,
propellers, seats, and the auxiliary power unit, and
Canadian-made Pratt and Whitney engines. Sultanov also noted
that TAPOiCh would not be able to have these aircraft
certified by the International Civil Aviation
Organization--he was concerned about an upcoming audit in
April--without Western equipment, particularly the Pratt and
Whitney engines. (Comment: While Russia manufactures an
engine for the Il-114, it has a shorter lifespan and is of
poor quality. Uzbekistan Airways refused to purchase these

aircraft in the 1990s with the Russian-made engines because
they were so unreliable. End comment.)


5. (C) Comment: TAPOiCh's formal request will probably arrive
via a diplomatic note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
possibly to the Uzbek Embassy in Washington in the near
future. Post recommends serious consideration of TAPOiCh's
request, as allowing the export of these U.S.-made engines to
TAPOiCh--while taking steps to ensure that the parts are used
for their intended, peaceful purpose--would appear to be
mutually beneficial. First, several American
companies--Hamilton Sundstrand, Weber Aircraft, Honeywell
International, and Rockwell Collins among others--benefit
from cooperation with TAPOiCh. Second, allowing these
transfers to take place could foster goodwill in our
bilateral relationship and keep the plant's thousands of
employees from being thrown out of work. Uzbekistan prides
itself on its aviation achievements and President Karimov
himself was an engineer at TAPOiCh for several years in the
1960s.
NORLAND