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Rogozin says RF will forum its own aerospace defence system

During his working trip to Tula on Saturday, Rogozin said Russia “is not going to produce old goods”

TULA, February 11 (Itar-Tass) — Russia will form its own aerospace defence system irrespective the pace of the talks with the United States, Vice-Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said.

During his working trip to Tula on Saturday, Rogozin said Russia “is not going to produce old goods”.

The vice-prime minister said the military-industrial complex should concentrate efforts on weapons that the army needed. Plants should manufacture products for civilian purposes. “It is necessary to observe the parity like as in the West

Speaking about the Tula arms plant, Rogozin said, “Of course, it is necessary to revive it.” “There is a direct instruction from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The Tula arms plant is the region’s trademark. But we will revive other facilities. There are ideas on new production lines and we are trying to involve other enterprises from different regions in this project,” Rogozin said.

“Today the key task is to convert defence plants for new uses.” “We don’t need the old ones.” Many problems should be solved to renovate the Tula arms plant, Rogozin said, adding, “We’ll solve all problems in the future.” In his words, “a new small arms manufacturing facility will be created. Such plants in other regions are likely to join it.”

Among priorities, he named disposal of outdated ammunition. “The Defence Ministry should not extend their lifetimes. They should be replaced by new, up-to-date weapons,” Rogozin said

Commenting on the situation in the military-industrial complex, he said for many years Russia had succeeded in reaching a new level: “under Putin’s rule, we ‘accumulated some fat’ that could be used to spend for industrialisation”.

The vice-prime minister noted that he came against nationalising all. “It is necessary to attract private entrepreneurs to defence enterprises. To this end, it is necessary to take into account all sites in the Tula region,” he stressed.

On possibilities of export of Russian arms, Rogozin said Russia continued to play a stable role on the arms market.

Rogozin described his trip to Tula as “exploratory”. The vice-prime minister said he intended to visit to the region after March 1. He urged Tula region governor Vladimir Gruzdev to hold a special conference on the region’s mobilisation capacities.