"The planned events will allow equipping the army and the navy with modern armaments and military hardware and will give a possibility to lay scientific and technical groundwork for developing principally new and non-traditional types of weapons. The draft new program also stipulates equipping the groupings of forces in Crimea and in the Arctic," Shoigu said.

MOSCOW, April 12. /TASS/. A draft state armament program for 2018-2025 envisages arming the Russian groupings of forces in Crimea and in the Arctic with modern weaponry, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at the ministry’s board meeting on Wednesday.

Russia’s state armament program for 2018-2025 aims to ensure a balanced development of the system of armaments of the Russian Armed Forces, the defense minister said.

"It is important to take into account that the plans, which have been mapped out, will be implemented amid import substitution, the development of the domestic electronic components base and the implementation of the contracts of military products’ full life cycle, and also amid the synchronized periods of preparing the necessary infrastructure and delivering new armaments," the defense minister said.

The financing volumes of the existing armament program have allowed complying with the planned pace of armament and military hardware deliveries, upgrade and repairs and it is necessary to ensure continuity between the new project and the existing state armament program, Shoigu said.