Article Posted on : - Dec 15, 2010

A file photo.

MOSCOW (BNS): The Russian armed forces is planning to spend 300 billion rubles ($10 billion) in a drive to digitise its communications systems by 2012, the chief of the Russian General Staff Nikolai Makarov said on Tuesday.

"It is necessary to have a technical base for resolving military tasks. It is communication that must be turned digital. We are currently working on it. We should resolve these tasks by 2012," Gen. Makarov was quoted as saying in a RIA Novosti news report.

Makarov made the announcement as part of a whole host of clarifications on Russia's military goals from 2011 to 2020.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Monday that the government has earmarked 20 trillion rubles ($646 billion) to rearm and modernise the country's military over the next nine years.