As BarentsObserver reported, Putin was in Severodvinsk yesterday to lead a meeting on the state armament program for 2011-2020.
More than 20 trillion rubles (€484 billion) will be earmarked for weapons procurement in the ten year period, three times more than is allocated in the existing 2007-2015 program.
- We are allocating very serious, significant funds for the rearmament program. I am even scared to pronounce this figure, 20 trillion rubles, Putin told government ministers and top military officers, Vedomosti reports.
Some 1300 new types of weapons will be made, and new production lines will be up or existing ones expanded to manufacture 220 of the new types of weaponry.
- We need to finally overcome consequences of those years when the army and navy were seriously underfinanced, Putin said.
The armament program is expected to be confirmed by the president and adopted before the yearend.
RUB 4.7 trillion – nearly a quarter of the allocated funds – will be sent to the navy’s needs. These will probably be spent to develop submarines of the Borey and Yasen classes, to renew the air wing Kuznetsov and to buy general purpose amphibious assault ships of the Mistral class, Vedomosti writes.
Putin said the modernization program will also focus on strategic nuclear forces, air-defense systems, communication and intelligence.
