Post date: Dec 13, 2010 7:16:46 PM
Russia needs to finally overcome consequences of those years when army and navy were seriously underfinanced, Russian Prime Minister Putin says while visiting the northern town of Severodvinsk.
SEVERODVINSK, RUSSIA (DECEMBER 13, 2010) NTV - Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Monday (December 13) that the government had pledged 20 trillion roubles ($646 billion) through 2020 to modernise and re-arm the country's military.
Russia's armed forces have demanded an increase in spending to modernise its ageing infrastructure and weapons systems after years of insufficient funding which undermined its performance in local conflicts after the break-up of the Soviet Union."We are allocating very serious, significant funds for the rearmament programme. I am even scared to pronounce this figure, 20 trillion roubles," Putin told government ministers and top military brass. "Our armed forces should be equipped with advanced machines such as this one, submarine project 955, as soon as possible," Putin told government ministers and top military officers at the navy shipyard SevMash in the northern town of Severodvinsk on the White Sea.
Putin said the modernisation programme will focus on strategic nuclear forces, air-defence systems, communication, intelligence, fifth generation fighter and the navy. He said about 4.7 trillion roubles will go to the navy with one third of the amount to be spent in the next five years.
Putin also launched the dock trial of Russia's second Borei class nuclear submarine that will carry the Bulava intercontinental missile. Russia is completing the construction of three Borei-class nuclear submarines, and the first one, Yuri Dolgoruky, is already undergoing sea trial.
Russia plans to build a total of eight to nine of the submarines. The project -- the most ambitious in the Russian fleet's post-Soviet history -- has been hampered by a series of failed tests in recent years of the Bulava missile, which the Borei class submarines are being built to launch.
Putin saluted sailors in black coats lined up aboard the submarine and congratulated them on the dock trial launch. He briefly looked at the open empty silos where Bulava missiles will be eventually installed.
The submarine's chief engineer Alexander Reznikov said the 170-long Alexander Nevsky will be ready in December 2011 but declined to say whether it will be equipped with 16 Bulava missiles by then.
The construction of the third Borei class submarine Vladimir Monomakh has already started.
The three submarines are named after Slav medieval kings. They will carry a crew of 107 people.