Russian military to reach modernization goal by 2021: Putin

Moscow, June 29 (IANS) Modern weapons in the Russian Armed Forces will reach planned figure of 70 per cent by 2021 and some of them will surpass their foreign equivalents by decades, President Vladimir Putin has said.

The amount of modern weapons in the Russian Armed Forces is close to 60 per cent as of now, Putin said at an assembly of graduates of military universities in the Kremlin on Thursday.

According to its state armament program for 2018-2027, Moscow plans to spend about $318 billion to upgrade the military equipment.

"Modern military hardware in the Russian Armed Forces did not exceed 16 per cent just six years ago," Xinhua news agency quoted Putin as saying.

A number of domestic weapon systems will exceed their foreign equivalents for years, perhaps decades, he added.