President Vladimir Putin then ordered the country's defense industry to speed up the development and production of a number of vitally important “units and parts,” while still allowing them to look for alternative Western suppliers.
Shortly before the famous showcase of Russia’s top-of-the-line tanks and armored vehicles based on the Armata and Kurganets platforms during last year’s Victory Day Parade on Red Square, the deputy head of the Military-Industrial Commission, Oleg Bochkarev, said that they were 100-percent developed and built in Russia.
“We are already working on hardware components needed for mass production of [the next generation of tanks and armored vehicles],” he said early last year.
Gazeta.ru learned that by “hardware components” Bochkarev meant, among other things, thermal sights and motion control gear for Armata and Kurganets tanks and APCs.
Meanwhile, the Defense Ministry is closely monitoring the process of replacing US, European and Ukrainian-made parts in Russian defense production.
The Russian Defense Ministry unveiled its new Armata tank at the May 9 Victory Day military parade in Moscow in 2015.
The tank is operated by a crew of three, housed in an armored capsule at the front. Its main armament includes a 125-mm smoothbore cannon and a 7.62-mm remote-control machine gun.
