Russian Rearmament: An Assessment of Defense-Industrial Performance

Abstract

This article addresses two related questions associated with Russia’s rearmament program (GPV- 2020). First, it examines how the Russian defense industry has performed in the first five years of the rearmament program, by presenting data describing the quantity and quality of new arms procurement in Russia. Second, the article considers which factors explain the nature of Russian defense-industrial performance over the past five years, including the importance of the increase in financial resources allocated to defense procurement, as well as additional structural and institutional factors. It is argued that, although defense-industrial performance between 2011 and 2015 has not been perfect, it can still be considered to have been relatively successful.