http://www.en.rian.ru/russia/20080926/117153782.html
Medvedev orders upgrade of Russia's nuclear deterrent by 2020
ORENBURG (South Urals), September 26 (RIA Novosti) - President Dmitry Medvedev
said on Friday that Russia must upgrade its nuclear deterrent and fully supply
the Armed Forces with modern weaponry by 2020.
He said Russia would make the modernization of its nuclear deterrent and Armed
Forces a priority in light of the recent military conflict with Georgia. Moscow
launched a five-day military operation "to force Georgia to peace" in response
to an attack by Georgian forces on South Ossetia on August 8.
"A guaranteed nuclear deterrent system for various military and political
circumstances must be provided by 2020," Medvedev told a meeting with
commanders of military districts during the Center-2008 military exercises at
the Donguz testing range in the Orenburg Region.
"We must ensure air superiority, precision strikes at land and sea targets,
timely deployment of troops. We are planning to launch large-scale production
of warships, primarily, nuclear submarines with cruise missiles and
multi-purpose attack submarines," Medvedev said.
"We will also build an air and space defense network," he added.
Medvedev ordered military commanders to prepare an action plan for implementing
the upgrades by December this year.
Russia is about to adopt a new military doctrine which aims to transform the
Armed Forces into a mobile and effective military force. Their structures will
be 'optimized' through the use of combined arms units performing similar tasks.
The Russian armed forces will be slimmed down to one million personnel by 2013,
but the transition to a fully professional army will not happen at least until
2030, mainly due to fiscal restraints.
Russia's defense budget is believed to be around 25 times less that that of the
United States, but the country's military expenditure has been steadily growing
in the past few years.
Russia's Defense Ministry has said it will spend around one trillion rubles
($40 bln) of federal budget funds in 2008, 20% more than in 2007, and that in
2008-10 military spending would account for 15.5-16% of total federal budget
spending.
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