MOSCOW. March 30 (Interfax-AVN) - The present-day defense industry is in a deeper crisis than the army, Nikolai Mikhailov, former deputy defense minister, told a Tuesday news conference in Moscow.
"The report of the Foreign and Defense Policy Council on the current military development comes to a right conclusion that the defense industry has ceased to do what it ought to - to provide the Armed Forces with modern weapons, and defense industry is in a deeper crisis than the army. I fully back this conclusion," he said.
He emphasized that there had been no real anti-crisis measures in the last 15 years, although there had been a lot of simulation.
Mikhailov urged for critical change in Russia's defense industry policy. "It is high time we looked the reality straight into the face and acknowledge that Russian cannot provide orders, hence money, to the USSR's specialized defense industry, which is too much for the country," he said.
He added that Russian defense industry needed despecialization and integration with civilian industries as the main mobilization base for arms production.
"Relations between the state and defense industry should be based upon a state defense order planned for two to three and more years," the expert said.
In the light of NATO's eastward enlargement, Mikhailov said, Russia has to produce more intelligence hardware for better airspace security.