MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The share of advanced weapons in the Russian Armed Forces will exceed 50 percent by the end of the year, as a large-scale rearmament program is going according to plan, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Friday.
“You are well aware of the fact that a program of technical re-equipment of the army and the fleet is currently being implemented. The percentage of the army’s modern hardware is constantly increasing. By the end of the year it will amount to more than 50 percent,” Shoigu told journalists at a scientific conference.
“The troop command system is being improved at various levels, while issues of the social protection of servicemen are being resolved with a high-quality approach,” Shoigu said.
Russia is in the process of implementing a large-scale rearmament program, which was announced in 2010. The country aims to modernize 70 percent of its military hardware by 2020. The cost of the modernization program is estimated at about 20 trillion rubles (over $300 billion).
