The lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, passed on Wednesday in the first reading a bill on the establishment of an advanced military research agency.
The proposed Russian Foundation for Advanced Research Projects in the Defense Industry will be similar in its purpose to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the United States.
The new body is expected to boost the development of advanced weaponry and help streamline the arms procurement process in Russia.
“The sole purpose of this foundation is to close a gap in advanced research with our Western partners after 20 years of stagnation in the Russian military science and defense industry overall,” Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said, presenting the bill to the Russian lawmakers.
Rogozin cited unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), advanced technologies and new materials as main problem areas in the defense-related research.
“We should focus on the development of automated systems, new materials, electronics, and hypersound as these technologies, if they are adopted first by other countries, could shift the existing forms of strategic balance,” Rogozin, who oversees Russia’s defense industry, said.
He added that the new foundation would initially employ 100-150 experts who would oversee a variety of mid- and long-term “high risk” RD projects at Russian defense firms and scientific institutions.
“The funding of the agency will be carried out from the budget of the state arms procurement program,” the official said.
The Russian government is planning to spend over 20 trillion rubles ($614 billion) on purchases of advanced military equipment until 2020.
Russia’s Vedomosti business daily speculated on Wednesday that up to 4.7 trillion rubles ($145 billion), or almost a fifth of the rearmament program’s budget, could be spent for “unidentified” purposes, including “secret weapons development.”
Commenting on this speculation, Vasily Kashin, an expert from the Center for Analysis of Strategy and Technology think tank, said the precise assessment of budget allocation is impossible as details of the program are classified and subject to future adjustments.
“In addition, some projects within the program deal with military equipment that is being purchased simultaneously for different branches of the Armed Forces and, therefore, cannot be counted as an acquisition for a specific branch,” Kashin said.
However, the expert did not rule out the possibility that some of the “unidentified” funds could also be used for “top secret” military research.