Russia Planning 10 Year, $640 Billion Military Modernization

by John Reed on February 25, 2011

Well, it looks like the Ruskies are going to persevere with their plans to modernize their military. Remember, a little while ago there was some doubt as to whether Russia would really be able to pursue an aggressive modernization effort.
According to AFP, Russian defense officials just unveiled a ten year, $640 billion spending plan. Yup, in ten years, they’ll spend a little more than we do in one. So there’s no huge cause for concern about the Russian military rising up to take on the U.S. one-on-one.
The real issue here is whether this investment cash will fund advanced weapons that get sold to a number of other nations that aren’t so friendly to the U.S.  Still, only about $64 billion will be dedicated to developing new weapons in the period. So, don’t worry too much.
Apparently, the Russian military will be getting 600 new airplanes, 1000 new choppers (100 choppers this year, alone).
The Russian navy, in particular, is set to get a ton of new goodies including eight new nuclear ballistic missile boats:

The Navy should receive about 100 new vessels, including 35 corvettes, 15 frigates and 20 submarines. Of the submarines, eight should be of the nuclear Borei class, carrying Bulava multiwarhead naval intercontinental ballistic missiles that the ministry plans to commission later this year after additional tests.
The ministry will fund the development of a new liquid-fuel heavy intercontinental ballistic missile, to replace aging RS-18 Stilleto (SS-19 NATO codename) and RS-20 Satan (SS-18 NATO codename), Popovkin said. Such missiles can carry up to 10 warheads, he said, while solid fuel missiles, such as Topol, can carry maximum three warheads.

In addition to this, Russia’s going to put 10 S-500 surface-to-air missile systems in service by 2014 and will buy another 56 S-400 SAMs. Let’s hope these missile remain too expensive for most nations to buy them.
The Russians will also buy “small batches of drones, sniper guns and French-made Felin infantry combat suits.”

Read more: http://defensetech.org/2011/02/25/russia-planning-10-year-640-billion-military-modernization/#ixzz2N53yGNrh
Defense.org