The Russian Navy"s combat capabilities could...

"If the current situation [with shipbuilding] remains unchanged, we will face a grand-scale removal of ocean-going warships from service with the Russian Navy by 2015 and, as a result, a sharp decrease in its combat capabilities," Adm. Vyacheslav Popov said in the article "The Navy and Russia"s national security" published in the "Russia"s Security-2010" almanac on Thursday.

Popov, who is the chairman of the committee on national maritime policies in the upper house of parliament, said the main cause of the looming crisis was lack of financing allocated for construction of new ocean-faring ships.

"The allocated funds are insufficient to carry out large-scale construction of ocean-going ships and simultaneously maintain the existing fleet in combat-ready condition," the admiral said.

He said the Russian Navy received only one 2,000-ton corvette and no ocean-going warships in the past decade.

Russia"s current weapons procurement program through 2015 does

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