Belarusian army to receive attack drones soon - Lukashenko
MINSK. Sept 20 (Interfax) - The Belarusian army will soon be supplied with attack drones, the presidential press service said in a statement.
"We have done a lot in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles, since drones are vital to modern warfare. Of course, we are building attack drones [among others]; this is a must. They will be put into service pretty soon," Lukashenko said on Wednesday while watching the final stage of the Zapad (West) 2017 exercise.
The Belarusian defense sector will continue to thoroughly modernize available weapons while working on new products, he said.
Thorough modernization of armaments and military hardware is an element of the army's development and technological outfitting, Lukashenko said. One does not have to spend millions of dollars on new weapons at a time when already available hardware can be modernized to achieve similar performance, he said. "We can do all these things: aircraft, armor, and small arms," he added.
Belarus is also working on new weapons, such as the Polonez missile system, Lukashenko said. "Polonez is the newest precision-guidance weapon. We are focused on this area. I'd rather not go into details, but we are really working on it," he said.
'There will be no war between fronts. Instead, the fighting will be local. We need highly mobile forces for defense, and wars fought around the world recently suggest we should have mobile units," Lukashenko said.
Belarus has managed to preserve its defense enterprises and research centers, and they are in demand, the president said. "We have learned how to build all types of products, and their range will continue to expand. We not only need to arm our forces; there is a huge demand for profound modernization projects and new hardware around the world. The products we build are not only used locally but also successfully sold on global markets," Lukashenko said, adding that Belarus does not make or export any forbidden weapons.