MOSCOW. Feb 14 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Defense Ministry's board will discuss the implementation of the president's instructions issued following fires and explosions at the Armed Forces' ammunition depots in 2009-2012, Defense Minister Gen. Sergei Shoigu said on Friday.
"In accordance with the issued instructions, we set the task of optimizing the missile and ammunition storage system in the Armed Forces. As we tackled it, the situation improved noticeably: approximately five million tonnes of excessive or unusable ammunition, or more than 70% of the overall amount, were disposed of, and a departmental program was confirmed, giving the go-ahead for the construction of nearly 600 storage sites and their infrastructure, including advanced firefighting and fire alarm systems," the minister said.
"This work helped prevent any emergencies at warehouse and ammunition depots in 2013," Shoigu said.
"All of the necessary stockpiles of missiles and ammunition will be placed at these storage facilities by the end of 2017," he said.
"This will help significantly prolong their service life and enhance the level of their protection from any external exposure," the minister said.
"However, some tasks have not been tackled very effectively," he said.
"For example, the current pace of this industrial disposal process will not allow us to destroy all of the unusable ammunition items by the set deadline. This circumstance has prompted the Defense Ministry to discuss ways to increase its volumes together with the Military-Industrial Commission and the Industry and Trade Ministry," Shoigu said.
One of such options is to transfer unusable ammunition to enterprises as part of financial settlements for the services provided by them under the state weapons procurement program, as well as to give ammunition to enterprises free of charge, ask them to recycle it and return these materials to the production and technology cycle, the minister said.
"This may help increase the disposal volume by 230,000 tonnes without requiring any additional spending from the federal budget. Apart from that, the possibility of transferring control over unneeded warehouses and ammunition depots equipped with ammunition disposal capacities to the Industry and Trade Ministry will soon be discussed at a joint session of the boards of the Defense Ministry and the Industry and Trade Ministry," Shoigu said.