Three new weapons plants to arm Russia and its neighbors

Politics — 30 January 2012

Russia is planning to build three new plants to produce anti-missile defense systems.

Their completion will allow Russia to equip its new Air-Space military forces with the latest-generation technologies. It is not yet clear where the new plants will be located.

Foreign customers, including Belarus and Kazakhstan, are also waiting for Russia to start shipments of S-400 interceptor missiles in three years’ time.

The plans are part of a federal program to modernise the defense industry. It is estimated this will cost the budget three trillion roubles if approved.

The announcement comes days after the country’s Defense Ministry admitted it had failed to meet deadlines for orders of state arms placed in 2011.

In 2011, there were failures to fulfil contractual obligations under 84 contracts. The non-fulfilment had run to a total of about 42 million roubles.