MOSCOW, January 22 (AVN) - The army development plan for 2001-2005 and the state armament programme for 2001-2010 endorsed by President Vladimir Putin on January 16 will be presented to the Russian Defence Ministry command at a special session in the near future, a spokesman for the General Staff told the Military News Agency on Monday.
The signing was delayed due to the fact that additional estimates had to be made in connection with the probable withdrawal of the USA from the 1972 Anti Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty.
The presidential army development plan consists of more than 30 documents with detailed account of steps aimed at army development for the next five years, as well as development priorities for the period until 2020. The plan has refined figures and terms of the reform and the scale of the coming reduction in the Army and Navy.
It has been decided that the Russian Armed Forces will consist of the Land Forces, Air Force and Navy. Airborne troops, Military Space Forces and Strategic Missile Forces will be independent branches, with the latter to join the Air Force in the future.
The documents and the armament programme were developed on the basis of the country's socio-economic development forecast and are linked to possible macroeconomic figures of Russia's gross domestic product.
The draft concept of the Russian army development policy for the period until 2010 should be submitted to the president by June 1, 2001.