Mass delivery of new armaments and military hardware for the forces
will start in 2016, Russian General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov said.
"A new tank, an infantry combat vehicle and an armored personnel
carrier will be ready in 2015; the Prospective Airborne Complex of
Frontline Aviation, the S-500 air defense system and a corvette will
become available in 2016, and a new-generation destroyer will be created
in 2018," he said at a meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry Board in
Moscow on Thursday.
The work on these armaments "has been steady and uninterrupted," he said.
The rate of modern armaments and hardware in the Russian Armed
Forces is supposed to reach 30 percent in 2015 and 70-100 percent in
2020, the General Staff chief said.
"Annual deliveries of 70 to 100 jets, over 120 helicopters, eight to
nine warships and submarines and up to 600 armor pieces have been
planned for reaching the goal," Gerasimov said.
Available weapons will be modernized alongside the procurement of
new hardware, he said. "Troops will receive over 2,500 pieces of
modernized armaments and hardware before 2020, and their main parameters
will not be inferior to those of contemporary products," he said.
More than 400 military units will be equipped with contemporary and
prospective armaments, military and special-purpose hardware before
2020, Gerasimov said.
It is also planned to raise the serviceability status of weaponry.
It will reach 85 percent in the Army, 80 percent in the Air Force and 78
percent in the Navy by 2016. The Navy indicator will grow to 85 percent
by 2020, the General Staff chief said.
Contracts for the entire period of service life of mass products will be signed starting from this year, he said.
The strategic nuclear forces, the Aerospace Defense Forces, signal,
reconnaissance, radio-electric warfare and command units and
high-precision weapons are the re-arming priorities, the general said.
