State Armaments Program 2011-2020

Hardware upgrade, import substitution are Russian army’s development priorities

MOSCOW, May 18. /TASS/. Russia needs to upgrade its armed forces not to meddle in geo-political conflicts, but to provide reliable protection for its own security and the security of its allies, polled experts have told TASS after studying the results of a series of meetings President Vladimir Putin as the commander-in-chief held with the military elite and the heads of the defence-industrial complex in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi last week.

Putin has used the format of such conferences for several years in a row. Once a year he brings together senior military and chiefs of the defence industry for joint in-depth analysis of the situation and development prospects in various branches of the defence-industrial complex. In the course of the latest series of such meetings Putin paid special attention to putting to effective use the 20 trillion rubles ($400 billion) earmarked for rearming the ground, air and naval forces and another 3 trillion ($60 billion) for re-equipping the arms manufacturing industries. Also, he set the task of stepping up the substitution of imported military technologies with products of domestic manufacture.

"The priorities Vladimir Putin has identified are quite logical. Throughout the 1990s the Russian army’s weapons and equipment remained basically unchanged. The hardware’s parameters were falling behind those of the other armies around the world. The quality of armaments and equipment in service was identical to what the Ukrainian army with its low combat readiness is today," the deputy director of the Institute of Military-Political Studies, Anatoly Khramchikhin, told TASS.

This explains why the Russian army needs wholesale and fundamental upgrade of its hardware.

"In the ground and air forces the share of the newest armaments should exceed 30% by the end of 2015, in the airborne troops, 40%, and in the Navy and air and space defence forces, 50%. By 2020 the share of modern weapons in the Russian armed forces should go up to 70%, and in some arms and services, to 100%. These targets the president has identified are quite achievable, bearing in mind the funds allocated for re-armament," Khramchikhin said.

"Against the backdrop of anti-Russian sanctions, disruption of military-technological cooperation with Ukraine and the row over France’s failure to deliver the helicopter-carrying amphibious assault ships Mistral on time, if at all, the priority of import substitution is more than obvious. Although in fact Russia does not need the Mistrals very much, as the Navy sees no specific tasks the ships might be charged with," Khramchikhin believes.

"The issue of import substitution will be addressed in various ways. For instance, gifted young men may be offered employment at arms manufacturing enterprises as an alternative to military service on conscription. Under a presidential decree defence industries will be allowed to hire young men possessing special technical skills and talent, who otherwise would be drafted into the armed forces, to fill vacancies on cutting-edge research and production teams. Within some Russian army units there have already been created special research groups for particularly gifted young scientists. This is another factor for the armed forces’ upgrade," Anatoly Khramchikhin said.

The president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, Konstantin Sivkov, believes that the production of heavy inter-continental ballistic missiles and the upgrade of the Bulava missile, is a priority for the Russian armed forces.


"Also, the Russian defence industries must step up noticeably the output of smart weapons and to build 3,000-4,000 armored vehicles on the new generation Armata chassis," Sivkov told TASS.

"In the context of modern hybrid warfare fundamentally new arms and services must be created within the Russian armed forces: for one, an information warfare arm, identical to those already operating against Russia within NATO. As Putin said at the meetings in Sochi, Russia was not threatening any country. Nor did it have the slightest intention to meddle in geopolitical conflicts. But for protecting its integrity and sovereignty Russia should perfect its military skills and potential," the chief of the Centre for Military and Political Studies, Aleksey Podberyozkin, told TASS.

"There are serious reasons to believe that the state defence contract program extending till 2020 will be implemented successfully. But far more attention should be paid to research and development. The Soviet Union’s bank of ideas and promising technologies in aircraft-building and air and space defence has been exhausted 80%. Time is ripe to give thought to creating advanced military technologies capable of outperforming the best foreign counterparts. In the military industry it is not enough to just keep abreast of world standards. For that breakthroughs in the fundamental science are to be achieved first," Podberyozkin said.

Russia Completes 2014 State Arms Procurement by 97% - Deputy Minister

Russia's 2014 state arms procurement program is 97 percent complete with the remainder to be fulfilled in the third and fourth quarters of 2015, Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Ministry of Defense said in January that the program was 95 percent complete by the end of 2014. Its volume has grown by a multitude of 1.25 in comparison to 2013, with 1.65 times more equipment delivered to the armed forces.

"More than 97 percent of all commitments in 2014 have been confirmed, while all other activities will be completed in the third and fourth quarters," Borisov told the Rossiya-24 television channel.

The defense minister added that out of 3,100 of last year's contracts, only 157 (or five percent) have not been completed on time.

Russia's 2016-2025 arms procurement program focuses on the development of purely defensive high-precision weaponry in the country.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/military/20150529/1022689459.html#ixzz3bVytQSmz

Impatient Putin

Once flagship of a robust Russian military press, NVO isn’t what it was.  What is after 15 years of Putin?  But NVO still has moments.  Its 22 May editorial is one.

NVO writes that recent Roskosmos failures overshadowed President Vladimir Putin’s mid-May meetings with Defense Ministry and defense industry leaders on the GOZ and GPV.  Still the 9 May Victory Day parade on Red Square showed much has been done to rearm Russia.  But much doesn’t mean every problem has been solved.  Rather, NVO contends, problems in the realization of GPV 2011-2020 and GPV 2016-2025 are “snowballing.”

The paper offers cases in point:

• The fifth generation T-50 (PAK FA) fighter didn’t fly over Red Square even though it’s supposed to be in serial production already. The impatient Putin gave Russian designers just five years to field the T-50 while the Americans took 14 years from first flight to first delivery with the F-22 and 12 with the F-35.

•    Only a short time — two years — has been allowed for serial production of the new Armata tank.  The Soviet T-64 took 10-15 years from the start of testing until all development work was finished.  The call for Armata tanks and other armored vehicles on the same base in 2015 is just a “wish.”  Serial production won’t begin earlier than 2018.

•    There are delays in other key military programs — S-350 Vityaz, S-500 Triumfator-M, and missile defense systems (no specifics provided).

Then NVO reels off a list of weapons the Russian military needs that, the editorial asserts, aren’t exactly rolling off assembly lines:

   Transport aircraft;
   UAVs;
   Air-launched missiles;
   Air ordnance;
   Artillery and fire control systems;
   Space systems.

Regarding the final bullet, the paper notes that “even a huge investment of budget resources still won’t save Roskosmos from its systemic crisis.”

NVO concludes:

 “On the whole, fulfillment of GPV-2020 and GPV-2025 has been summoned to restore Russia to military parity with NATO, if only the Russian economy can withstand the strain.  If not, the history of the USSR may be repeated.”

Some will quibble about particular systems NVO claims Moscow will have trouble fielding, but the general point remains:  far from everything needed by a military neglected for 20 years is being successfully procured.  There are more than a few independent Russian economists who say Moscow’s current high level of defense spending is damaging an economy already challenged by lower oil prices and Western sanctions.

George1 wrote:Impatient Putin

Once flagship of a robust Russian military press, NVO isn’t what it was.  What is after 15 years of Putin?  But NVO still has moments.  Its 22 May editorial is one.

NVO writes that recent Roskosmos failures overshadowed President Vladimir Putin’s mid-May meetings with Defense Ministry and defense industry leaders on the GOZ and GPV.  Still the 9 May Victory Day parade on Red Square showed much has been done to rearm Russia.  But much doesn’t mean every problem has been solved.  Rather, NVO contends, problems in the realization of GPV 2011-2020 and GPV 2016-2025 are “snowballing.”

The paper offers cases in point:

• The fifth generation T-50 (PAK FA) fighter didn’t fly over Red Square even though it’s supposed to be in serial production already. The impatient Putin gave Russian designers just five years to field the T-50 while the Americans took 14 years from first flight to first delivery with the F-22 and 12 with the F-35.
  

•    Only a short time — two years — has been allowed for serial production of the new Armata tank.  The Soviet T-64 took 10-15 years from the start of testing until all development work was finished.  The call for Armata tanks and other armored vehicles on the same base in 2015 is just a “wish.”  Serial production won’t begin earlier than 2018.
  

•    There are delays in other key military programs — S-350 Vityaz, S-500 Triumfator-M, and missile defense systems (no specifics provided).
  

Then NVO reels off a list of weapons the Russian military needs that, the editorial asserts, aren’t exactly rolling off assembly lines:

   Transport aircraft;
   UAVs;
   Air-launched missiles;
   Air ordnance;
   Artillery and fire control systems;
   Space systems.

Regarding the final bullet, the paper notes that “even a huge investment of budget resources still won’t save Roskosmos from its systemic crisis.”

NVO concludes:

 “On the whole, fulfillment of GPV-2020 and GPV-2025 has been summoned to restore Russia to military parity with NATO, if only the Russian economy can withstand the strain.  If not, the history of the USSR may be repeated.”

Some will quibble about particular systems NVO claims Moscow will have trouble fielding, but the general point remains:  far from everything needed by a military neglected for 20 years is being successfully procured.  There are more than a few independent Russian economists who say Moscow’s current high level of defense spending is damaging an economy already challenged by lower oil prices and Western sanctions.

Where did you dig up this garbage?

Those economists couldn't count worth shit anyway.  They think witholding spending will save an economy.  That is far from the truth. S-500 wasn't even supposed to be fielded or showed this year I believe, and I don't know the S-350 info but I question this claims. As well, PAK FA has been in development for a lot longer than 6 years, it was envisioned in the 90's. And PAK FA is still undergoing tests. I don't recall that it was supposed to be shown on May 9th. That said, they are still flying. And the Armata comment.... T-64..... What a joke. Yeah, and they shown working units, guess they don't need 10 - 14 years to design it....

sepheronx wrote:

Where did you dig up this garbage?

Those economists couldn't count worth shit anyway.  They think witholding spending will save an economy.  That is far from the truth.  S-500 wasn't even supposed to be fielded or showed this year I believe, and I don't know the S-350 info but I question this claims.  As well, PAK FA has been in development for a lot longer than 6 years, it was envisioned in the 90's.  And PAK FA is still undergoing tests.  I don't recall that it was supposed to be shown on May 9th.  That said, they are still flying.  And the Armata comment.... T-64.....  What a joke.  Yeah, and they shown working units, guess they don't need 10 - 14 years to design it....

https://russiandefpolicy.wordpress.com/2015/05/28/impatient-putin/

George1 wrote:

sepheronx wrote:

Where did you dig up this garbage?

Those economists couldn't count worth shit anyway.  They think witholding spending will save an economy.  That is far from the truth.  S-500 wasn't even supposed to be fielded or showed this year I believe, and I don't know the S-350 info but I question this claims.  As well, PAK FA has been in development for a lot longer than 6 years, it was envisioned in the 90's.  And PAK FA is still undergoing tests.  I don't recall that it was supposed to be shown on May 9th.  That said, they are still flying.  And the Armata comment.... T-64.....  What a joke.  Yeah, and they shown working units, guess they don't need 10 - 14 years to design it....

https://russiandefpolicy.wordpress.com/2015/05/28/impatient-putin/

That website? Uggh. I stopped going there long ago. They have not provided a decent article ever. Every article about Russia and its military is always negative with that site.

Share of modern hardware in Russian army to reach 70%-100% by 2020

"I expect that the defense-industrial enterprises and the research and design bureaus will do their utmost for the timely and proper implementation of the identified plans," Putin said

KUBINKA /Moscow Region/, June 16. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes that the defense-industrial complex will cope with the task of building up the share of modern types of hardware at the disposal of the Russian armed forces to 70%-100% by 2020.

"Let me remind you that the implementation of the state program is to build up the share of cutting-edge weapons in the armed forces to 70%, and in some cases, to 100% by 2020. This is an impressive parameter, indeed," Putin told an audience at the opening of the international arms show Army-2015 in Kubinka, near Moscow Tuesday.

"I expect that the defense-industrial enterprises and the research and design bureaus will do their utmost for the timely and proper implementation of the identified plans," Putin said.

Defense-industrial complex must remain innovation engine in various spheres

Russia’s defense-industrial complex must be a resource for the development of many industries and an innovation engine in general, Russian President said.

"It is nakedly clear that the effectiveness of the defence-industrial complex is the most important resource of growth for the whole economy. Moreover, it is the defense-industrial complex that should set the benchmarks regarding many technological and manufacturing parameters and remain one of the innovation engines, including dual purpose and civilian ones," Putin said. He mentioned such industries as energy production, power engineering, communications and microelectronics.

"It is important to perfect the mechanisms of public-private partnership in the industry and to spread the successful experience of private companies, which provide parts and components for military products," Putin said. He called for giving civilian enterprises, universities and research centers in the work on state defence contracts.

Russian Defense Ministry: State armaments program will not be reduced