Defense Orders to be Settled in Week, Russian Prime Minister Says

Russian Prime minister expects all state defense contracts which were supposed to be settled till Sept 1 would be signed in a week.

“I hope, this process would be finished in a week. I mean shipbuilding, missiles, and aviation”, Putin said on Sept 5 at interregional conference of United Russia Party.

Putin reminded that the arms procurement program is financed with “colossal funds” comparable to those spent in Soviet times, i.e. RUR 20 trillions till 2020.

“We must not only spend those billions and trillions. We must produce required number of high-quality products. Of course, enterprise efficiency should be guaranteed as well, that is obvious. At least 15 per cent, to have resource both for development and worthy payment for labor”, he said.

Earlier on, Putin tasked defense ministry to sign all contracts till Sept 1. Defense minister Anatoly Serdiukov said on Sept 1 that the ministry had tied all contracts except those with United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC). In his turn, official representative of USC told to RIA Novosti that the corporation had not signed 9 large contracts with defense ministry “including the largest ones with Sevmash shipyard”. Sevmash is supposed to deliver one Project 885 Yasen and two Project 955 Borei submarines (Bulava-carriers) to Russian Navy.

[mappress]
Source: rusnavy, September 7, 2011;