MOSCOW, June 29 (Xinhua) -- The amount of modern weapons in the Russian Armed Forces is close to 60 percent and is expected to reach the planned figure of 70 percent by 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.

"Today, the share of modern military hardware in the Russian Armed Forces is close to 60 percent, while it did not exceed 16 percent just six years ago," Putin said at an assembly of graduates of military universities in the Kremlin.

A number of domestic weapon systems will exceed their foreign equivalents for years, perhaps decades, Putin said.

In recent years, Russia has been actively modernizing its military equipment. According to its state armament program for 2018-2027, Moscow plans to spend about 20 trillion rubles (318 billion U.S. dollars) to upgrade the military equipment.