The trip allowed First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to emulate Putin's habit of playing with military hardware to underline his image of a strong leader bent on reviving Russia's might. Putin has accepted Medvedev's proposal to become prime minister if he wins the March 2 election.
Putin used Wednesday's trip to announce the creation of the National Aviation Center, intended to integrate numerous existing management, design and testing structures in one place. The center will be located in Zhukovsky, a town 30 kilometers (about 20 miles) southeast of Moscow that has hosted the nation's main flight test facility for nearly 70 years.
"Aviation has always been the pride of our country," Putin said. "The innovative development of our economy is impossible without aviation."
Officials set the goal of building 5,800 new civilian and military planes by 2025 and winning 15 percent of the world market. Russia has commissioned only a few dozen aircraft for its own military and civilian airlines since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Russia's aviation industries have survived mostly thanks to lucrative export orders for their fighter jets from China, India and other foreign customers. Even though the influx of oil revenues has allowed the government to boost defense spending in recent years, the Russian air force has been slow to upgrade its aging Soviet-era fleet.
Putin, who has stressed the need to bolster Russian military might amid a cold spell in relations with the West, pledged Wednesday to increase purchases of new combat aircraft.
"The situation when foreign customers receive the most advanced Russian planes and our air force limits itself to modernization of old planes is unacceptable," Putin said. "We must revise the state armament program and increase purchases of aircraft."
Putin also promised to increase salaries of military pilots, which have remained at a fraction of what civilian pilots receive.
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