$30 mil is a speculation by
myself do not want to write as a cost of a fighter jet!
Since Soviet times, Ukraine specialized in building helicopter engines, and Putin said that Russia was setting up a capacity to produce them at home.
It could be even more challenging to substitute another Ukrainian product, ship turbines. Its refusal to deliver them has derailed the commissioning of new Russian navy ships.
Last month, the Armata starred in the Victory Day parade on Red Square, becoming an emblem of the country's resurgent military power. Dmitry Rogozin, a deputy prime minister in charge of weapons modernization, likened Russia to a 'big Armata' and claimed that the new tank is 15-20 years ahead of the current Western designs.
Speaking in a recent live TV talk show, Rogozin also used armor as a symbol to issue a bold threat to the West - showing how military hardware can also be a powerful weapon in the Kremlin's propaganda war.
'Tanks don't need visas!' Rogozin declared, in a reference to Western travel bans and economic sanctions against Russia. Amid the tensions with the West, Putin emphasized the need for the nation's defense industries to quickly shed their dependence on imported components.
The Armata's price hasn't been announced, but some observers speculated that the new tank could be as expensive as a fighter jet, too heavy a burden for the struggling economy. There are no reliable cost estimates of the tank.
The tank's chief designer, Andrei Terlikov, 52, shrugged off such claims, saying that the Armata's price will drop significantly once it enters full-scale production. 'In the end, the price of those machines will be affordable,' Terlikov told The Associated Press in his first interview with foreign media.
Speaking at his office at the mammoth UralVagonZavod factory in the Ural Mountains, one of the biggest industrial plants in the world, Terlikov described the Armata as a 'decisive step toward more advanced unmanned machines, including those which could operate autonomously in combat.'
He emphasized that the Armata uses only domestically produced parts. 'From the very start, we have set the task to rely on our own resources,' he said.
Read more:
Russian Armata tank 'is 20 years ahead of anything in the West' | Daily Mail Online
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