Putin orders to complete trials of new military hardware showed at Victory Parade

SOCHI, May 13. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin set a task at a defense meeting on Wednesday to complete as soon as possible all the trials of military hardware for the army demonstrated at the WWII Victory Parade in Moscow on May 9.

"We need to complete all the trials within the shortest time possible and switch to serial production," he said.

The Russian president paid special attention to rearming Russia’s Army and modernizing their existing military hardware.

A part of new combat hardware was demonstrated at the parade held in Red Square on May 9 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s Victory over Nazi Germany in WWII, Putin said.

"The performance characteristics of this new combat hardware considerably exceed the characteristics of foreign alternatives and this hardware is generally highly valued by military specialists," he said.

The Russian army should also use all the possibilities of the operational military hardware, Putin said.

"Its potential is far from exhausted and we need to think about modernization and so on," the Russian president said.

Putin said the defense meeting would also discuss in detail the pace of fulfilling state defense order related to equipping the strategic nuclear forces and the Aerospace Defense Force, which play a special role in ensuring Russia’s security and maintaining international stability.

The Russian leader said these troops should be ready for the immediate accomplishment of missions assigned to them.

Putin said Russia is working on developing promising missile systems with enhanced capabilities to overcome existing and future missile defense shields.

The Russian president also said Russia was building up its orbital grouping of satellites, improving its ground-based space infrastructure and continuing developing radar systems.