Defense Ministry to honor Mistral contract but rely on Russian-made hardware afterwards - Shoigu
MOSCOW. Nov 11 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Defense Ministry will honor the Mistral-class helicopter carrier contract with France but will procure Russian-made hardware during a later period, Defense Minister General of the Army Sergei Shoigu said in the Channel One Voskresnoye Vremya program aired on Sunday.
"You don't change horses midrace, I mean the Mistral [deal]. We have to carry out this contract. Speaking of the rest, all of you have heard about the scandals of the past few months, cyber jeopardy linked to the bugging of millions of citizens, chiefs of state. We understand that hardware has reached a point at which we cannot guarantee that somebody will not push a button and shut it down at a certain moment. So, we will rely on our own [products]. Domestic [products]," Shoigu said.
As to the fulfillment of the state armament program, the minister said, "The country has focused its attention. The president has made a decision. We will rearm our army. We will reequip it. It will have 70% of the new armaments by 2020."
Shoigu was asked about the condition he found the defense ministry in after his appointment. "There were lots of surprises," Shoigu said.
"There were lots of unpleasant surprises. Some of the problems that were created will have to be coped with for years. I would say they will have to be corrected," the minister said.