The Russian Ministry of Defense has signed almost a dozen defense contracts totaling more than RUB 500B during the Army 2022 Expo, presided over by President Putin. According to Russian state owned media, those contracts included:
-Supply of Sarmat ICBMs
-Su-34 front-line fighter bombers
-Increased production from Arsenal machine building plant on supply of Lotos-S reconnaissance satellites.
-contract with KBM machine building company on supply of Iskander-M missiles.
-contract with Dolgoprudnenskoe Scientific Production Plant on supply of Buk-M3 air defense systems.
-supply of Orlan, Inokhodets, and Eleron drones.
-contracts with Uralvagonzavod on supply of T-90 tanks
-contract with Bronetankovyy Remontnyy Zavod on supply of BMP-2 armored vehicles.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense has invited more than 1,300 arms and equipment manufacturers from 15 countries to showcase their products, with around 500 Russian and foreign journalists covering the event. This is the eight iteration of the event.
Hundreds of military and civilian vehicles are on display outside the Patriot Expo near Kubinka in the Moscow region. Some of them have a long history behind them. Others, like the Sukhoi Su-57 multirole stealth fighter jet have become stars of the Army Forum for the first time.
This year’s expo has been of particular interest as the Russian Armed Forces are seeking to replenish their inventory of military vehicles and munitions since their February 24th invasion of Ukraine in which they are estimated to have lost up to 80,000 troops, more than 1,700 tanks and thousands more armored vehicles, manned and unmanned aircraft, and munitions depots. While the Russian Ground Forces have seemingly underperformed in Ukraine, this expo presents an opportunity for the Russian Federation to invest in capabilities that could be directly employed on the battlefield in a matter of weeks.
The contracts listed above show the priorities of the Russian Federation as they struggle to replenish their military under Western sanctions.
