Putin reveals improvement in Russian military output
Russia’s military industry has enjoyed remarkable growth over the past two years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
He commended the sector on Friday as he toured the Motovilikha Plants, a sprawling full-cycle industrial site located in the city of Perm. The facility specializes in the production of various artillery pieces, including self-propelled and towed howitzers as well as multiple rocket launcher systems.
“For certain types of weapons and some products, our production has increased not by a few percentage points, but several times over,” Putin told workers at the plant, adding that for some, this figure is “almost 30-fold.”
Industry output has not only increased but also improved in quality, the president noted, adding that the weapons systems have become more “modern and in-demand.” Putin expressed hopes that the rapid development of the sector will not subside with the end of the Ukraine conflict.
“I hope and expect that these events related to the special military operation will pass, but the demand for modern armed forces will not end there. On the contrary, we will continue to develop the armed forces, making them modern, compact, and powerful,” the president said.
During the visit to the plant, the president was shown new weapons systems, including those brought from the Ukraine conflict zone for repairs and refurbishment.
They included a Derivatsiya-PVO, an anti-aircraft autocannon built on the chassis of the BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicle, as well as a TOS-2 Tosochka, a system designated as a “heavy flamethrower” which effectively acts as a short-range multiple rocket launcher, designed to fire massive 220mm thermobaric projectiles.
The TOS-2 is a lighter, wheeled version of the tracked TOS-1A system; it has been introduced and actively used in the Ukraine conflict. The particular unit shown to Putin came from the combat zone and bore distinctive shrapnel marks, a video taken of the president’s visit shows.
