By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : The Russian Defence Ministry is planning to dispose of three million tonnes of ammunition by the end of 2013 after its service life expired, said Deputy Defence Minister, General Dmitry Bulgakov.
He said about 6 million tonnes of ammunition are kept at 140 munitions depots around the country, although the Russian Armed Forces need only half of this amount.
About 1.5 million tonnes will be scrapped in 2012, Bulgakov said.
According to the general, Russia will spend 90 billion rubles ($3 bn) until 2015 to upgrade existing ammunition and build new storage facilities for munitions, missiles, and explosives.
There will be no ammunition kept in open-air arsenals and a number of existing facilities will be moved farther away from the residential areas, the general said.
All these measures have been prompted by a series of accidents at various Russian ammunition storage facilities last year that killed and injured dozens of soldiers.
There were also wide-spread complaints from the local public near the ammunition disposal sites about noise and damage to private property caused by shockwaves as a result of explosions.