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Russian naval shipbuilding contracts worth 280 billion roubles

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said seven naval shipbuilding contracts signed on Wednesday are worth 2890 billion rouble

SEVERODVINSK, November 10 (Itar-Tass) — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said seven naval shipbuilding contracts signed on Wednesday are worth 2890 billion roubles.

"More than 280 billion roubles of contracts have been signed," Putin said adding that in all, seven contracts had been signed.

On Wednesday, reports said the Russian Defense Ministry and the Unified Shipbuilding Corporation (OSK) signed the remaining contracts within the state defense order to build Borei- and Yasen-class submarines.

According to information from the Unified Shipbuilding Corporation, two contracts were signed for design and experimental works under the Borei and Yasen projects, to be implemented by the Rubin and Malakhin design bureaus.

The submarines will be built by the Sevmash enterprise. Under another contract, the Admiralteiskiye Verfi shipbuilding plant in St.Petersburg will build a rescue vessel of Project 11320.

All the contracts were part of the state defense order for 2011 and 2012-2013, to ensure the implementation of the state program of armaments in the period from 2011 to 2020.l

Under the program, 4.7 trillion roubles are allocated for re-equipping the Navy. This year, allocations for the construction of nuclear submarines, frigates, ship repairs and maintenance reach 85 billion roubles, and 93 billion roubles for these purposes are envisioned in 2012.

Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters the 2012 state defense order is as good as coordinated.

"In a week or two, we'll consider a draft of the state defense order for 2012-2013-2014, in order to submit it for signing by December 1, 2011. It will give the opportunity to the customers and contractors to conclude subsequent contracts for 2012-2014 from December 1," Ivanov said.

Some of the contracts signed on Wednesday will be implemented in the period until 2016. "Very large contracts in submarine construction have been signed today," he noted, "some of them will be implemented until 2016."

Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin noted that "all documents have been signed which formed the state defense order in shipbuilding for the next years."

He also said that aside form naval contracts, several agreements were signed in the field of civil shipbuilding. The volume of civil products in the OSK's portfolio now amounts to 17 percent, according to Sechin.

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