Russia's air force, which performed inconsistently during the country's brief and victorious war against Georgia in 2008, will also be refitted and be given 600 new planes and 1,000 new helicopters before 2020.
The planes will mostly be modern Sukhoi 34 and 35 fighters, while the helicopters will include Mi-8 helicopter gunships and the bigger Mi-26 heavy lift cargo helicopters. The country's fearsome TU-160 strategic nuclear bombers, the same planes that have begun to probe the limits of the UK's airspace in recent years, will also be completely modernised.
Much of the enormous spend will be channelled into Russia's strategic missile forces with several hundred mobile S-400 and S-500 defence missile systems on order and a new intercontinental ballistic missile in development capable of carrying ten nuclear warheads.
