The enormous investment plan includes eight nuclear submarines, 600 warplanes, 1,000 helicopters and 100 naval vessels.
First Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Popovkin announcement of the ambitious came Thursday and will speed up modernization of the armed forces.
Russian Kilo-class submarine with crew-members on deck. Photo: Thomas Nilsen
Analysts say the rearmament plan will in effect create brand new Russian armed forces, said to cut links with the outdated Soviet equipments.
Read also: Norway: No comment, Sweden: Effects must be discussed
But it is not only the equipment itself that cause a challenge for the Russian armed forces.
- Russia needs a professional non-commissioned officers core to train specialists who can really put these arms to effective use, says Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent military analyst, to The Moscow Times.
Kremlin has over the past years repeatedly highlighted the needs to modernize both the conventional forces and the nuclear strategic forces of Russia. Both Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitri Medvedev have visited the important naval yards in Severodvinsk on nearby all events involving different stages of commissioning new nuclear submarines.
- The main task is the modernization of our armed forces. Nineteen trillion rubles (€470 billion) will be allocated for this, AFP quoted Deputy Defense Minister Popovkin saying.
Russia’s spending on military was €44 billion in 2010, placing the country as the world’s fifth-largest spender on arms.
Read also: Norway to strengthen military cooperation with Russia
