Russian Defense Ministry to set up agency in charge of weapons procurement deals
MOSCOW. Dec 4 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Defense Ministry will establish a new agency responsible for overseeing weapons procurement contracts and the quality of military hardware, General Staff Chief Col. Gen. Valery Gerasimov said at a meeting with foreign military attaches on Tuesday.
"The delivery of advanced weapons is a very complicated project. Nevertheless, a structure will appear within the Defense Ministry at the minister's decision that will help make sure that contracts on weapons and military hardware are signed on time, as well as will control the production of weapons at all stages," he said.
"Top priority will be given to designing advanced samples of weapons and military hardware for all services and branches of the Armed Forces," Gerasimov said.
"State-of-the-art weapons ought to account for 30% of the Armed Forces' arsenal by 2015, and 70%-100% by 2020 regarding different kinds of weapons," he said.
"This principle governs our work with the defense industry. The Defense Ministry has set requirements for samples of weapons. All of the conditions needed to reliably accomplish this task are in place. The most important thing is to gain weapons that would allow us to tackle combat tasks in any kinds of military conflicts in the foreseeable future," Gerasimov said.