The prime minister inspects the new fifth-generation T-50 fighter plane at Sukhoi.
Vladimir Putin arrived at Sukhoi aircraft design centre on Monday evening in order to see for himself the design of the fifth-generation T-50 fighter, the pride of the Russian military aircraft industry. Unlike the previous versions, the T-50 combines the functions of an assault plane and a fighter and outpaces Western analogues on the "cost/efficiency criterion."
After looking at the plane, Putin chaired a meeting on the development of the defense industry at which he announced that the government will drop 240 contractors from the government's list of strategic enterprises.
"This will enable us to make quick decisions on companies' futures, for example, on attracting investments," the prime minister said.
Even after the cut, the list of strategic enterprises will still include more than 200 facilities – all of them key assets of the state.
Although the country has done promising work in the defense industry, and, as the prime minister mentioned, has retaken a good reputation in the world market, there are still a host of problems facing Russia's military enterprises. One is low production efficiency, which was discussed at the meeting. Under the government armament programme, the military will receive more than 1500 new helicopters and planes and about 200 air defense systems in the next ten years.
"During the crisis period, the industry got an unprecedented amount of government help," the prime minister recalled. "It exceeded 93 billion roubles. As a result, the production of aircraft in 2009, far from falling as it did in the economy at large, increased by 7%."
By Nigina Beroyeva