MOSCOW, October 1. /TASS/. Russia’s Ground Forces are due to receive 5,000 pieces of new armored vehicles and 6,000 pieces of modernized weaponry by 2020, Colonel General Oleg Salyukov said on Wednesday.

“In total, up to 2020 it is planned to buy over 5,000 new and around 6,000 modernized samples of armored vehicles and military hardware, and around 14,000 pieces of modern samples of vehicles,” said Salyukov, the commander-in-chief of the Russian Ground Forces.

The government is planning to buy modernized T-72B3 tanks, which were seen at Russia's tank biathlon world championship outside Moscow in early August and during the last month’s Vostok-2014 military drills in Russia's Far East.

Other weapons purchases for the army include BMP-3 amphibious infantry fighting vehicles, modernized BMP-2 and BTR-82A armored personnel carriers, Salyukov said.

Under the country’s unprecedented army re-equipment program, the share of advanced weaponry in the Russian army, currently estimated at 16%, is set to reach 70% by 2020.

Analysts of the international HIS company said in February that Russia’s defense spending is expected to increase by over 44% in real terms over the next three years, to $98 billion in 2016. This plan has propelled Russia to the world's third-largest military spender after the United States and China.