Russia’s Military Is About To Get An Upgrade

Russia has approved an ambitious $358 billion package to upgrade its military over a 10-year period, from 2018-2027, and supply its armed forces with state-of-the-art, high-precision air, land and sea-based weaponry.

"We are adopting – have already adopted – an armament program and a state defense order by 2027," Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the United Engine Corporation in Ufa on Wednesday, according to Interfax news agency. Putin said that once the peak of deliveries under the state defense order is passed in 2020, defense industry enterprises would have to refocus on civilian production.

The state armaments program is expected to fund projects that will develop high-precision air, land and sea-based weapons; unmanned strike aircraft; and state-of-the-art reconnaissance, communications and electronic warfare systems to the Russian armed forces.

One such project is to produce an unmanned strike and reconnaissance aircraft in the same general class as the General Atomics Avenger, built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems for the American military and went into operation in 2009.

Russia’s version is said to be equipped with a turbojet engine that will produce a velocity at least two times greater than those of analogous propeller-based drones. The aircraft would be capable of speeding up to 1,000 km/hr (621 mi/hr), and be used in moderately contested airspace and in a maritime situation.

Russia’s Defense Ministry awarded a contract in December to the Simonov Design Bureau for its design on December 26, 2017.

Under the 10-year plan Russia is also expected to develop its Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile system, which is expected to use hypersonic blocks for launching and destroying targets, as well as the S-500 air defense missile system and hypersonic Zirkon missiles.

Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Yuriy Borisov had previously stated that within the next decade Russia could create a fundamentally new weapon.

"I think that the future program period will be characterized by the introduction of fundamentally new types and systems of weapons. Options received in this direction by the leading enterprises of the defense industry allow us to expect that by 2025-2026, there will be completely new types of weapons that will make major changes in the strategy and tactics of warfare,” Borisov said.

Efforts to develop a new long-range interceptor could begin as early as this year, according to the vice president at United Aircraft Corporation.

"Most likely, work will begin in 2018. I hope so. All depends on when the main document - the state armament program - will be available," Sergey Korotkov said.