Defense acquisition goes on as scheduled

The Russian Armed Forces continue receiving new weapons and military equipment. “As of the end of the second quarter, 40% of supplies scheduled this year have been delivered”, said Minister of Defense Sergey Shoigu on the joint day of military products’ acceptance in June. This means that they keep up the pace of previous years. Traditionally, the lowest number of deliveries are carried out in the first quarter of the year while the major part comes in the last quarter.

This is particularly true for the Russian Aerospace Forces. In the first half of the year they received nine new aircraft only including four Su-34 bombers. 54 more aircraft went through overhaul and upgrade. The numbers of rotorcraft are higher though – there were commissioned 38 new and 15 overhauled and upgraded helicopters. Most of them are Mi-8’s produced by Kazan and Ulan-Ude Aviation Factories. The Crimea’s air defense got reinforced by a new S-400 regiment.

With tests being underway, the flow production of armored vehicles for the Army based on new unified chassis will not start until the next few years. Thus, for now the military are being supplied with present generation armored vehicles. The total number of 271 units delivered this year included 130 enhanced firepower BTR-82А’s which for the military forces remain the most purchased type. The deliveries of other types of armored vehicles are remarkably lower (22 BMP-3’s, 32 BMD-4M’s, 30 Tigr-M’s). On of tank brigades received a battalion of Tor-M2U air-defense missile system.