WASHINGTON, May 15 (UPI) -- Russia's landmark sale of transport helicopter assembly kits to be assembled in China could point the way to a vastly larger transformation in global arms production.

As we reported Tuesday, the Russian Helicopter Co., which is now run by Oboronprom, has concluded a deal to sell assembly kits to build M1-171 military transport helicopters to China's Lantian Helicopter Co., which is located in Sichuan province.

Under the deal, Lantian at first will receive and assemble 20 Mi-171 kits a year, but the number is expected to rapidly grow to 80 kits a year.

That would mean that under this single deal, China will quickly be producing two-thirds as many Mi-171s as both production lines in Russia combined. Russian Helicopter makes the Mi-171 at two plants in Ulan-Ude and in Kazan. In 2006, 150 Mi-171s were scheduled to be produced, but only 120 of them were, representing a shortfall of 20 percent from the original production target.

Such shortfalls and bottlenecks are typical of the Russian Defense Ministry, and they are a major reason why President Vladimir Putin last year authorized the most radical restructuring of the Russian military-industrial sector since the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the collapse of communism at the end of 1991.