MOSCOW. November 1 (Interfax) - The Russian Defense Ministry plans to buy two helicopter carriers abroad, but in the future this class ships will be built in Russia, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said on Sunday.
"We are buying [helicopter carriers] fully with the technical documentation so as to be able to produce them at our own plants in the future," Serdyukov said in an interview with the Vesti Nedeli program on the Rossiya television channel.
Two helicopter carriers will be imported, the minister said.
The acquisition of foreign armament models is a forced measure because on certain types of equipment the Russian defense industry has lagged behind in recent years, he said.
"Certainly, these are armored vehicles, partly communications, partly drones," he said.
At the same time, the Defense Ministry is not going to "start acquiring foreign arms and military equipment on a massive scale," he said.
"We will be buying only what we are interested in in limited quantities so as to understand and assess their tactical and technical characteristics, on the one hand, and on the other hand try and formulate for our industry what we would like to see in our country," Serdyukov said.