MINSK, 13 February (BelTA) – The government needs to take the most rational approach to financing the Armed Forces, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said at the meeting of the Security Council of Belarus on 13 February, BelTA has learned.
“Over the past few years, a lot has been done to maintain the combat readiness of the Belarusian Armed Forces. The army gets the latest technologies, both domestic and international ones, and undergoes intense training. All this costs a lot of money. The government should take the most rational approach to its financing. There should be no disruption in the financing of the Armed Forces, either, especially with respect to armament and equipment,” Alexander Lukashenko said.
The number one task for the Defense Ministry is to acquire the most necessary things, allocate funds with maximum efficiency. “I warn the defense minister, and I will pay special attention to this: everything that we have in our army, from small arms, armored vehicles to aircraft and missiles, should be in perfect condition. You should take care of the army property. It is not cheap today, and we really need it,” the president said.
The head of state also noted that the reforms of the armed forces should not result in a never-ending process that could substitute the real development of the army. “I think that the ongoing checks in the armed forces will make it possible to assess the true state of their combat readiness,” he added.
According to Alexander Lukashenko, the country has taken the tough but timely measures for the development of the Belarusian military and industrial complex. “To date, Belarus has set up a creative, so to say, cluster of chief designers and specialists of the military manufacturing plants,” the head of state said.
Belarusian specialists made advances in such areas as rocket science, modern anti-aircraft missile complexes, armored vehicles. The highly effective weapons that have been designed in Belarus are in demand not only domestically but also internationally. “However, there is still a lot to be done. New generations of armaments, UAVs, radio-electronic warfare means, robotics is a partial list of things that we are working on. We need to bring the latest developments into the production cycle more actively, to shorten the period from the drawing board to serial production,” Alexander Lukashenko said.
The head of state asked the defense minister and the chairman of the State Military Industrial Committee what other measures are needed to develop the armed forces and strengthen the military security of the state as a whole, what the issues are and how they will be addressed
