Vladimir Putin has instructed to increase the production of weapons used in the war with Ukraine. He emphasized such a need several times at a meeting with Rostec head Sergey Chemezov.
“It is necessary to increase in percentage terms the production of the latest weapons. T-90 Breakthrough, airplane complexes. You know what we are talking about. “Lancets and so on”, Putin stated.
Chemezov responded that Rostec is just working on this. He added that the Kub and Lancet kamikaze drones, which are produced by the enterprises of the Kalashnikov Concern, which is part of the corporation, “have proven themselves very well”.
Putin agreed with him: “They have proved themselves very effectively: first of all, the impact is powerful. Any equipment, including foreign-made, does not just burn, but the ammunition also explodes”. According to the president, the manufacturers promised him to increase the number of these drones. “They are coping with this promise, but it is necessary to increase more”, Putin reiterated.
Chemezov expressed his readiness to work to fulfill this task. He also reported that the corporation’s enterprises have doubled the production of combat airplanes and helicopters.
“In 2022, our holding company Russian Helicopters produced 296 helicopters. Last year it was 134. <…> This is, of course, primarily due to the increase in the GOZ: under the GOZ we doubled the production of military helicopters. But we also worked on civilian helicopters”, Chemezov specified. He did not give figures for airplanes.
In general, Chemezov noted that about half of Russia’s total state defense order “rests on the shoulders” of Rostec enterprises. For 2022, the state defense order was fulfilled by 99.5%. He emphasized that the corporation had increased production volumes “for all types of military products” used in the war in Ukraine.
“If we talk about the SMO, 90% of all products involved there are ours. First of all, these are barrel and rocket artillery, light and heavy armored vehicles, transport helicopters, combat aviation, heavy fire systems, small arms, all types of ammunition”, Chemezov said.
According to him, the same list includes such combat equipment as BMP-3, MDM APC, T-90 Breakthrough tanks, Iskander missile systems, Kinzhal hypersonic air missile systems, Ka-52, Mi-28, Su-57, Su-35 helicopters, and the already mentioned drones. “All the volumes that are required today for the Ministry of Defense, we fully cover”, Chemezov assured.
At the same time, he complained that Rostec does not have “enough people”: the average number of employees at the state corporation’s enterprises is 592,000 people, while 23,000 vacancies need to be urgently closed this year.
The company’s revenue in 2022 grew by 2.5% and amounted to Br2.116 trillion. However, net profit decreased from 165 billion to 39 billion rubles.
In early August, it became known that the Russian authorities had already spent the entire military budget approved for the year and were forced to double the amount they plan to spend on the army thrown into the conquest of Ukraine.
Thus, in the first six months, 5.59 trillion rubles were spent on defense, or 37% of all the money spent in the budget, Reuters wrote, citing closed materials of the Russian government. At the same time, Br4.91 trillion was allocated in the budget law for the year under the “national defense” item. The new plan for annual defense spending is Br9.7 trillion, or $102 billion at the current exchange rate.
