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Putin calls on improvement of the country’s aerospace defense

70% of Russian planes will be provided with latest equipment by 2020, according to the Russian president

MOSCOW, November 29. /ITAR-TASS World Service/. Newspapers’ reports on a meeting on the state defense order, which the president chaired on Thursday in Sochi, are devoted to Russia’s defense capability.

Vladimir Putin ordered to work more actively on promising complexes of the front and long-range aviation. He stressed improvement of strategic air-based nuclear forces and more wide use of drones, Komsomolskaya Pravda writes.

The role and importance of the aviation is constantly growing, the president said. “In this connection, we have a big program of developing our combat aviation. This year, the forces have received 86 new planes and 100 helicopters. By 2020, as many as 1,591 units of state-of-the-art air equipment will be supplied. Thus we plan that 70% of our planes will be provided with latest equipment.”

Among the tasks the military industrial complex of the country and the army are facing in re-equipment of the air force, Vladimir Putin focused on improvement of the air-based strategic nuclear forces.

Rossiiskaya Gazeta quotes head of the United Aviation Construction Corporation Mikhail Pogosyan, who reported to the Chief Commander about the work on the promising aviation complex for long-range aviation: “This year, we have completed early tests of modernized Tupolev-160 and Tupolev-95, and now these planes will begin the state tests.”

Vladimir Putin called on development of the country’s aerospace defense. The strategic parity and the balance of forces depend on its state, he said. The president spoke positively about the effectiveness and reliability of the Voronezh radar station. Rearmament of the rocket units and military divisions with the S-400 systems continues as planned. “We should not forget about the outstripping technologies, for example, the S-500 complex. It will be able to serve not only in the air defense, but to become an element of the anti-missile defense,” the president said.

The meeting’s participants told the president, by 2018 the country will have full radar coverage; tests of S-500 were due from 2014; the new Vityaz air defense missile medium-range complexes would be supplied to the military in 2015-2016.

Itar-Tass is not responsible for the material quoted in these press reviews

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