MOSCOW. Sept 23 (Interfax) - Russia has even further perfected more than 300 samples of weapons, including Kalibr cruise missiles, following the operation in Syria, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
"I can tell you that more than 300 types of weapons were fine-tuned based on the Syrian experience, and we terminated the production and use of 12 samples, initially seen as prospective," Shoigu said in an interview with the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets.
The Russian Armed Forces had to master new methods of warfare in Syria, the minister said.
"And we did master them. As regards fighter jets, army aviation, attack, long-range and transport planes, almost 90% of air force personnel took part in the operation in Syria. We have pilots who flew 150-200 combat missions, in addition to all those who were in charge of their planes' maintenance on the ground," he said.
Up to 2,000 tonnes of cargo were delivered to the Russian group in Syria at one time, Shoigu said.
"This includes the fleet, transport aviation, the operation of our logistics bases, port, redeployment, acceptance and maintenance of hardware. Representatives of our industry and science were also involved: representatives of more than 70 enterprises, engineers and designers who fixed all flaws on the spot once worked in Syria simultaneously," Shoigu said.
"Based on the results of this work, the president issued direct instructions to fine-tune or perfect individual features of some samples of weapons. The same was done to our Kalibr cruise missiles, long-range aviation weapons and submarines," he said.
"Regarding the use of high-precision weapons, for instance, it used to take so long to program mission input data into a Kalibr cruise missile that the target could just slip away. And today the time needed to program mission input data has decreased, I'd like to stress, dramatically. And this work to reduce the time of target assignment is going non-stop," the minister said.
"Commanders of regiments, brigades and divisions, army commanders, military districts' commanders, senior officers from the Defense Ministry's central military control agencies, and also professors and teachers of almost all military universities took part in the Syrian operation," Shoigu said.