MOSCOW: Russia will spend $650 billion in a massive new military procurement drive by 2020, equipping its forces with eight nuclear submarines, 600 new warplanes and 1,000 helicopters, a top official said on Thursday.
One hundred warships are also due to be bought in, including two helicopter carriers, in addition to two already being purchased from France.
Much of the new spending will go on Russia’s long under-funded navy. Apart from the submarines, 35 corvettes and 15 frigates will be ordered.
The spending plan envisages Russia returning its focus to the navy, equipping its new nuclear submarines with Bulava ballistic missiles that have been under development since the late 1990s, Deputy Defence Minister Vladimir Popovkin said.
“The main task is the modernisation of our armed forces. Nineteen trillion rubles ($653 billion) will be allocated for this,” Russian news agencies quoted him as saying.
The procurement drive, which has been repeatedly flagged by the Kremlin, is a key element of landmark military reforms which aims to revamp the armed forces’ Soviet-era structures to cope with the demands of modern warfare.
Last week, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin announced that spending on defence development would triple from 0.5% of GDP to 1.5% from next year.
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