Russia Lays Out Weapons Purchase Plans

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-eur/2007/feb/07/020705256.html

MOSCOW (AP) - The Russian military will sharply increase the number of new intercontinental ballistic missiles to be deployed this year as part of an ambitious weapons modernization plan, Russia's defense minister said Wednesday.

Sergei Ivanov said the military would get 17 new ballistic missiles - a drastic rise compared with an average four deployed annually over recent years. The purchases are part of a weapons modernization program for 2007-2015 worth about $189 billion.

Ivanov said in a speech before lawmakers that the plan envisages the deployment of the total of 34 new silo-based Topol-M missiles and their control units, as well as another 50 such missiles mounted on mobile launchers through 2015; Russia so far has deployed more than 40 silo-based Topol-Ms.

President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have described the Topol-M as a bulwark of Russia's nuclear might for years to come, and hailed its ability to penetrate any prospective missile defenses. Putin last week dismissed Washington's claims that missile defense sites it hopes to establish in Poland and the Czech Republic were intended to counter threats posed by Iran, and said that Russia would respond by developing even more efficient weapons systems.

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[ohio2007]

1. Since their small arms sales to small markets is doing so well

I would expect a 'surge' in large weapon procurement.