Global Security Newswire

Russia intends to prepare by June a comprehensive strategy for bolstering its naval assets over three decades, RIA Novosti quoted Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin as saying on Sunday (see GSN, Jan. 25).

Moscow in 2011 committed $2.8 billion for the assembly of atomic submarines and other warships as well as vessel sustainment operations. Russian funding toward those ends is anticipated to exceed $3 billion in 2012 (RIA Novosti I, Feb. 6).

Rogozin last week said his country would next year begin turning out six submarines and an aircraft carrier every 12 months, exceeding Soviet manufacturing speeds during the Cold War (see GSN, Feb. 2). Funding deficiencies, obsolete systems and the scarcity of trained workers have slowed output in the past, he had noted.

Eight Borei-class ballistic missile submarines and as many as 10 Graney-class atomic combat submarines are slated for construction in Russia by the end of the decade (RIA Novosti II, Feb. 2).

Meanwhile, Moscow intends by 2020 to upgrade its Tu-22M3 strategic bombers, potentially enabling them to carry the new KH-32 cruise missile, Defense and Security reported on Friday (see GSN, Dec. 23, 2009; Denis Telmanov, Defense and Security, Feb. 10).