17 February 2017, 13:41 GMT
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia’s Aerospace Forces plan to have five airfields in the country’s southwest and Far East rebuilt in the next few years, the forces’ commander, Col. Gen. Viktor Bondarev, said on Saturday.
"This year we plan to research the project [to renovate] the Ukrainka airfield in the Amur region and start rebuilding it next year. Renovation works are underway at the Step airfield in the Zabaikalsky region, at Mozdok in Northern Ossetia and at Baltimor in Voronezh. The reconstruction of Engels [airbase near Saratov] is in its second phase," Bondarev said.
Bondarev specified that all reconstruction works were to be concluded by the end of 2019.
Russia's military infrastructure modernization keeps pace with the large-scale rearmament program, announced in 2010, which is expected to end in 2020. The cost of the program is estimated at about 20 trillion rubles ($342 billion at the current exchange rates).
