Russia has planned to fully re-equip its armed forces with modern military hardware in the next 10 years, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday.
"In the next decade, we have to fully re-equip the entire military. It's a very difficult and capital-intensive task," the president said in an interview broadcast live on television, Xinhua reported.
"The military hardware is becoming obsolete, the servicemen must be paid in accordance with their work and their service, and the organizational system in the armed forces should be different," he said.
By 2012, all Russian military officers will be reassigned to a new system of allowances, said Medvedev.
He said Russia did not curtail the funding of major types of weapons despite the financial crisis because the country needs a strong army.
Shortly after a brief war with Georgia in August 2008, Russia unveiled military reform plans aimed at modernizing its armed forces, improving their efficiency and raising the living standards of servicemen and women.