MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for retaining the momentum in the formation of the country’s new state armaments program. He spoke at a meeting of the Military Industrial Commission on Tuesday.
According to the president, the state defense order tasks were 97% fulfilled last year. "It is important for us to retain momentum during the formation of a new state program, and therefore it is necessary, as they say, to make up the plans in a seamless and more coordinated manner, taking into account all the possible factors ranging from the potential of design bureaus and defense enterprises to the budget’s financial possibilities and the timeframe of the order fulfilment", Putin said, adding that the emphasis should be placed on the issue of advanced samples of armaments and military equipment.
He said that the experience of combat use of Russian weapons was analyzed in detail in May this year during a series of meetings with the leadership of the defense enterprises and military commanders. According to him, it was said then that most of the samples had good technical characteristics. Now, according to Putin, it is important to constantly improve them.
The president said that equipping the military space forces with new weapons remained a priority. Putin cited data showing that last year, the share of modern weapons and military equipment in the Russian Aerospace Forces reached some 64%. According to him, is necessary to increase this level up to 70% over the next four years.
The president also said that on May 16 this year the government adopted a program for the defense industry development, the main goal of which will be improving the technology, production, logistics and personnel readiness of the defense sector for the manufacturing of the required amount of modern weapons and military equipment with high quality.
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Putin also emphasized that prices should be "economically justified". "Considerable state resources, budgetary funds are planned to be allocated for the implementation of the state defense industry program," the president said. "We expect that this will allow defense companies to manufacture the required amount of weapons and military equipment in full volume by 2020. He added that the government has now started the formation of the budget for the next three-year period. He said it should be taken into account that 2018 and 2019 will be the first years of the implementation of the new state armaments program. The Russian president asked Finance Minister Anton Siluanov to report on the main financial parameters of the program.
On Friday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said that by 2020, the national defense industry should be made 100% ready for ensuring the manufacture or weapons and military equipment in accordance with the state armaments program. It is necessary to put into operation 929 facilities and bring the share of the innovative industry in the total volume of shipped products up to 40%. Also by 2020, it is necessary to develop at least 1,300 technology solutions for ensuring the manufacture of military products.