Russia to spend $15.6 billion on defense industry: Report

YEKATERINBURG, Russia, July 12 (UPI) -- Russia plans to spend $15.6 billion for the development of the country's domestic defense industry, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Monday.

Medvedev's comments came at a meeting with members of the ruling United Russia party, Russian news agency Tass reported.

"This year, the government has approved a new version of the program for developing the defense and industrial sector," Medvedev was quoted as saying by Tass. "This is a large sum of money."

Medvedev said the program will focus on retooling Russia's defense enterprises and providing new equipment. It will also involve modernizing the defense industry while providing new army and navy arms, Tass reported the prime minister saying.

Tass cited Vice Premier Dmitry Rogozin as saying the program will strengthen the country's personnel potential while substituting military products that had in the past been supplied by NATO countries, the European Union and Ukraine.

The program will seek to improve the technology behind existing armaments while also focusing on marine and aviation gas turbine manufacturing, Rogozin said.

The initiative also aims to get 929 new production facilities into operation and develop 1,300 technologies by 2020, Tass reported.