“Today we are to adopt a fundamental document regulating the supply of weapons, military equipment and other products for our Armed Forces. In the current situation, this matter is more relevant than ever,” the president stressed.
He noted that the events taking place in Ukraine clearly show that in order to be able to address assigned tasks, the troops should have advanced and highly effective weapons, support systems, fuel and food.
“The defense complex is one of the most important high-tech sectors of the Belarusian economy. Naturally, we should rely on domestic arms manufacturers,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
Well-known domestic defense firms include AGAT (automated control systems for various applications, hardware-software packages, communication and data transmission equipment, computing equipment, and instrumentation), Peleng and BelOMO (optics), as well as MZKT (tractor units). Radio-electronic means of combating unmanned aerial vehicles created by Belarusian specialists have received wide recognition in the world.
“Electronics was also one of the most advanced sectors of the economy in the Soviet period. And you see how it came in handy today. It is good that we have preserved it,” the Belarusian leader said.
“The Polonez rocket artillery system, the Buk-MB medium-range surface-to-air missile system (it is the real deal, it shows very good reliability and efficiency) and missiles for it, hand grenade launchers (also very relevant things), small arms and ammunition demonstrate serious scientific and production capacity of our defense industry. Work is actively underway to create robotic weapons, unmanned combat systems, and anti-tank guided missiles,” the president said.
At the same time, the head of state warned against going too far with ‘the cutting-edge technologies', because all this should be functional and easy to use for ordinary soldiers. “And no professional army will save us in this regard. Effective things are simple and reliable. That's the most important thing,” the head of state stressed.
Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that the army received the latest anti-aircraft missile systems Tor-M2, radar stations Protivnik, Sopka, Vostok, Rosa, and the electronic warfare systems Groza.
The Armed Forces also received armored personnel carriers Cayman and upgraded T-72 tanks.
The air fleet is being upgraded too. About 30 modern aircraft of various types (Su-30SM, Yak-130, Mi-8MTV5 and others) entered service.
As part of last year's state defense order, 80 new armored personnel carriers, four unmanned aircraft systems, more than 2,000 anti-tank guided missiles, dozens of troop control and communications equipment were purchased, 10 aircraft were overhauled.
During the meeting, the head of state raised a number of issues related to the equipment of the Armed Forces, the development of promising types of weapons, primarily missiles, and the impact of the situation around Belarus on the plans of defense firms.
Written by belta.by
