"We will need to set up new or expand
the existing production lines to manufacture 220 of the
new types of weaponry," Putin told a meeting on the
program, which is expected to be adopted by the yearend.
More than 20 trillion rubles ($640.7 billion) will be
earmarked for weapons procurement, three times more than
is allocated in the existing 2007-2015 program, he added.
The new program stipulates the upgrade of up to 11 percent
of military equipment annually and will allow Russia to
increase the share of modern weaponry to 70 percent by
2020.
Putin said that 4.7 trillion rubles ($150.7 billion),
or almost a quarter of the total budget, would be allocated
to the modernization of the Russian Navy.
"We now have more money and there are possibilities
to expedite the construction [of submarines]," Putin
said after visiting the Alexander Nevsky nuclear submarine,
which is under construction at the Sevmash shipyard in
the town of Severodvinsk in northern Russia.
Alexander Nevsky is the second of the Borey class nuclear
submarines being built at Sevmash.
The Yury Dolgoruky sub has completed sea trials and could
be adopted by the Navy in 2011, while the Vladimir Monomakh,
and Svyatitel Nikolai (St. Nicholas) are in different
stages of completion.
Russia is planning to build eight of these subs by 2015
and equip them with Bulava submarine-launched ballistic
missiles.
