MOSCOW, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Armed Forces received over 1,100 modern weapons in the third quarter of this year, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The ministry said in a statement that the weapons included 16 warplanes and 35 helicopters, over 200 armored fighting vehicles, 21 radar stations of various modifications, a small missile ship, an anti-sabotage boat and a small hydrographic ship.
In addition, in the same period, the Omsk nuclear submarine was repaired and the Smerch small missile ship was modernized, it said.
The armed forces also received varied engineering, automotive and communications equipment, airborne weapons and ammunition, the ministry said.
There is very little time left until the end of the year, so it is necessary to direct all efforts to implement the tasks of the state defense order for 2019, the statement quoted Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu as saying.
In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his annual online Q&A session that Russia was outpacing other major military powers in weapon development in spite of a gradual decrease in military spending.
He said that Russia is the world's seventh largest country in terms of military spending, equal to 48 billion U.S. dollars a year, whereas the United States spends around 720 billion dollars a year and plans to increase it to 750 billion dollars.
