Russia Unveils Ambitious Plans for Weapons Purchases

, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov says Russia plans to replace nearly half of its army's hardware by 2015. 
 
He said weapons purchases would include “17 intercontinental ballistic missiles, four military spacecraft with the same number of launch rockets for them,” as well as new bombers, ships, and other heavy equipment. 
 
Ivanov said military spending over the next eight years was planned at $189 billion, and that Russian military spending quadrupled from 2001 to reach $31 billion this year.