MOSCOW. Jan 11 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian Air Force Commander Anatoly Kornukov has described the supply of his force with new aircraft and other weaponry as critical.
"During the past 10 years equipment deliveries by the defense industry plummeted from scores of units at the beginning of the period to individual units in the past five years," he told Interfax on Friday. "Unfortunately, the draft program on armaments developed by the government provides for the continuation of this trend in the next few years," he said.
Kornukov named limited funding of the Armed Forces, and the Air Force, in particular, as the main reason for the situation.
Given the limited funding, special attention is paid to upgrading the existing weaponry to prolong its service life and improve its combat capability by installing new equipment and arms, he said.
Kornukov said he was sure that the combat potential of the Air Force would be preserved. He expressed confidence that the development of advanced armaments will be completed in the next few years and that stage-by-stage rearmament will be launched.
Speaking about the terms of launching the serial production of the S-400 surface-to-air missile system, Kornukov noted that the system's state tests were not completed last year due to several reasons. At the same time, "positive results of those tests make us believe that the state tests of the S-400 will be completed in 2002 and the system will be commissioned by the Armed Forces," he said.
The Air Force commander expressed his hope that first S-400 systems would be supplied to surface-to-air missile units of the Air Force already in late 2002 or early 2003.