MOSCOW, March 23. /TASS/. The strike potential of precision weapons supplied to the Russian Armed Forces will rise fourfold by 2021, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

"There is an increasing role of precision weapons in containing a potential aggressor and their characteristics have been confirmed in full in battles against terrorists in the Syrian Arab Republic. By 2021, the strike potential of our army’s and navy’s precision weapons is to increase fourfold," the Russian president said at a ceremony of receiving officers appointed to high command posts.

As the Russian supreme commander-in-chief said, "the combat potential of general-purpose forces playing a key role in ground operations will also increase."

"Thus, the arsenals of the ground forces will be replenished with modern tanks based on the Armata and Kurganets platforms, and also Koalitsiya SV self-propelled artillery guns," Putin said. 

Nuclear force 

The share of new weapons constituting Russia’s strategic nuclear force will go up to 90% by the end of 2020 under a priority rearmament program, Putin said.

"We will push ahead with improving the country’s defense potential and providing new generation weapons and hardware for all arms and services. In the first place this concerns the strategic nuclear force," the Russian president stated. 

He declared that by the end of 2020 the share of advanced weaponry in the strategic force was to exceed 60%, and by some parameters, 90%.

The chief of the Main Operations Directorate of Russia’s General Staff, Sergey Rudskoi, said at the ceremony that the rearmament of troops with new hardware was proceeding in compliance with the original schedule.

"The strategic nuclear force is maintained at a level that guarantees nuclear deterrence," he said. "The general purpose forces possessing the most advanced means of intelligence, attack and control are capable of warding off the existing and future military threats."