OMSK. Jan 15 (Interfax-AVN) - Most of the RUB148bn (USD5.12m) allocated for state defense orders in 2004 will be used for creating new weapons and military equipment, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told a news conference in Omsk on Thursday.
"If we are talking about the re-equipment of the army, we will sooner or later have to give up good, high-quality Soviet weapons and begin making enough modern high-precision weapons, new space systems, missile systems, communication equipment, and precision weapons for ground troops, although there will not be as many as we made in the Soviet Union," Ivanov said.
The Russian government has already approved an RUB148bn budget for state defense orders in 2004, he said.
"The state expenditures on defense has been increasing since 2000. Their percentage in the GDP does not exceed 3%, it is somewhere around 2.6%," Ivanov said.
The funding allocated for state orders is a separate item in the budget, he said. "The funding for state defense orders, which amounts to RUB148bn, is much higher than it was in 2003," Ivanov said.