Russian airborne forces to get state-of-the-art artillery guns in '13

MOSCOW, July 30 (RIA Novosti)

Russian airborne forces will accept for service new state-of-the-art self-propelled artillery guns in 2013, Lt. Gen. Nikolai Ignatov said on Saturday.

Under the new state-backed arms program to 2020, the Russian government will channel almost 20 trillion rubles into the rearmament. Under this program the share of new modern arms and equipment will be raised to at least 70 percent.

"We plan to launch large-scale production of these self-propelled artillery guns in 2013 and hope to get the first SP gun division the same year," Ignatov said.

Ignatov added that research and development operations on the new artillery guns, carried out jointly by the military specialists and industrial producers, had been almost completed.