Russia plans to buy an advanced warship from France this year, a top general said on Wednesday, in what would be the country's first major foreign military purchase and a blow to domestic arms producers. Gen. Nikolai Makarov, the chief of Russia's general staff, said that before the end of the year the navy planned to agree the purchase of a 21,300 ton Mistral-class helicopter carrier. The deal would be Russia's biggest one-off post-Soviet purchase of weapons abroad, representing a major departure for the Kremlin, which has traditionally been protective of domestic arms producers.
The Kremlin has made re-equipping the 1.1 million-strong armed forces a top priority after last year's war in Georgia revealed serious problems with hardware and electronic equipment. The appearance of NATO warships in the Black Sea during the war also highlighted the problem of upgrading Moscow's Soviet-era navy. But a series of accidents, including the sinking of the Nerpa submarine last year with the loss of 20 crew and five failed tests of the new Bulava intercontinental missile have exposed serious problems with Russian military technology.
No comments:
Post a Comment