NIZHNY NOVGOROD, January 17 (RIA Novosti, Zhanna Voronova) - Russia is drawing up a new state arms program for 2006-2015, a senior aide to President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday at a press conference in European Russia.
"It is not a secret now, a new state arms program for 2006-2015 is being drawn up ... to modernize the [Russian] Armed Forces," said Alexander Burutin, Putin's aide for military-technical policy and the military-industrial complex.
According to Burutin, his current trip to Nizhny Novgorod, 400km or 250mi from Moscow, is focused on military-industrial enterprises, their production capabilities and competitiveness, in relation to the implementation of the program.
Burutin said his agenda included trips to the Nizhny Novgorod aircraft building plant Sokol, the Afrikantov Experimental Machine Building Design Bureau (OKBM) and the Volga shipbuilding plant, a producer of a new-generation, air-cushion, amphibious plane.
