MOSCOW. Oct 13 (Interfax-AVN) - The state armament program for up to 2010 is all-failed, Andrey Nikolayev, chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee, told Interfax-Military News Agency Monday.
"The state armament program is all-failed. Even should we allocate RUB250bn-300bn (USD8.3bn-9.9bn) per year in 2005-2010, which will be twice as much as is planned for 2004, we will anyway not fulfil the armament program calculated for up to 2010," he said.
According to the legislator, it means that the terms of development, trials, and commissioning of new weapons are being postponed en masse.
"If nothing changes, and the funding will stagnate at RUB250bn-300bn in the coming years, the entire program will be set off until 2013-1014," Nikolayev went on. Meanwhile, the military development program is 2010-oriented, he emphasized.
He also said that the army the nation would have by 2010 would be inadequate to the challenges of the period, and when it gets ready for that in 2017-2018, provided the current funding will hold, the environment would also move on, and the army would again lag behind.
Nikolayev recalled that the draft budget for 2004 has an allocation of RUB137bn (USD4.5bn) for the state armament program.