Russia's defense minister lays out ambitious plans for new nukes purchases

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 5 trillion rubles US$189 billion (?146 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.

A rising tide of oil revenues gave Russia a chance to increase its defense spending following a desperate money shortage that plagued the military throughout the 1990s. "The economic growth and the scientific achievements allow us to reach a qualitatively new level in military procurement," Ivanov said.

Russia's defense budget which stood at 214 billion rubles (US$8.1 billion; ?6.25 billion) in 2001 nearly quadrupled to 821 billion (US$31 billion; ?24 billion) this year, Ivanov said.

But despite a steady increase in military spending in recent years, Putin said last week that Moscow's military budget was still 25 times smaller than Washington's defense spending.

Ivanov said that a share of weapons purchases in the military budget also has been growing over years. This year, the military will spend 144 billion rubles (US$5.4 billion; ?4.2 billion) on new weapons, buying aircraft, tanks and other armored vehicles and four new satellites, he said.

Ivanov said the military now has about 1,130,000 servicemen, compared with 1,340,000 it had in 2001. By 2015, the military will have about 1 million servicemen, Ivanov said. "We can't go below that," he said.

The Kremlin has rejected liberals' calls to form an all-volunteer army, saying that Russia needs a big draft force to protect its huge territory.

Ivanov said that the weapons modernization program would allow the military to replace 45 percent of existing arsenals with modern weapons systems by 2015.

As part of the plan, the navy will get 31 new ships, including eight nuclear submarines carrying intercontinental ballistic missiles, Ivanov said.

He downplayed recent failed launches of the new Bulava missile being developed to equip these submarines. The Bulava, developed by the same design bureau that built the Topol-M, failed in three consecutive launches late last year.

"If we already had commissioned this missile and had failures, that would have been a nightmare," Ivanov said, adding that launch failures were "within the norm" in the testing phase.

He also said that the government would decide in 2009-2010 whether to start the construction of a new shipyard for building aircraft carriers. Russia now only has one Soviet-built medium-sized aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov, capable of carrying about 30 jets and helicopters. The Associated Press

/The International Herald Tribune/