Russia spends 1.5 trillion rubles on military production in 2018.

President Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting with the military and defense industry leaders to discuss the implementation of the arms program. "This year, the Defense Ministry allocated significant resources for the creation and mass production of weapons and military equipment: a total of almost 1.5 trillion rubles," Putin said.

Pantsir S-1 in action at Army-2018 (Picture source: Army Recognition)

The arms program has to increase the share of modern weapons and hardware to at least 70 percent by 2021. "The large-scale rearmament will promote the whole set of modern and future missions to keep the strategic parity and reliably protect Russia from outside threats," the president said. Speaking about the implementation of the defense procurement order, Putin said that in general the pace of re-equipping the troops with modern weapons is observed. Particular attention is paid to the development of prospective systems and complexes which will define the future of the armed forces for years to come.

As for mid-November, the troops received close to two thousand arms and hardware. They include 74 aircraft and helicopters, 80 drones, four regimental sets of S-400, five surface warships, 250 tanks and armored vehicles. "I would like to stress that Russian arms of the latest generations surpass foreign analogues in most tactical and technical characteristics, while hypersonic weapons, air defense and electronic warfare arms, several complexes for ground forces are simply unprecedented in the world," Putin said. He called to support R&D and accelerate batch production of prospective weapons.

The president called to thoroughly analyze problems with defense procurement order, such as untimely fulfilment of commitments by some defense enterprises. "We have to see whether it is because of systemic reasons or a lack of discipline and normal organization of production processes," the president said.