On January 31, the President Mirziyoyev signed a decree on improving governing the equipping the Armed Forces of Uzbekistan and the defense industry.

The Decree has formed a State Commission for Equipping the Armed Forces of Uzbekistan. It will be headed by the President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

The State Commission for Equipping the Armed Forces will indetify the prospects for providing special bodies with weapons, military and special equipment and other military and dual-use products. The commission will be in charge of approval of state defense orders, programs to provide the Armed Forces with military and dual-use products, an finding th sources of their financing.

In addition, the decree formed the Defense Industry Agency under the Ministry of Defense at the State Committee for the Defense Industry.

Its tasks are defined:

• Regulating the activities of the defense enterprises, as well as the creation of new industries, including through cooperation with domestic enterprises and foreign partners;
• ensuring technological independence in the defense industry, organizing the production of important military and dual-use products, as well as import-substituting and export-oriented products;
• providing special bodies with military and dual-use products and other material and technical means produced at defense industry enterprises;
• military-technical cooperation with foreign partners, attracting foreign investment in the area, as well as organizing the export of military and dual-use products of defense industry enterprises;
• mastering the production of military and dual-use products, new materials, components and raw materials, organizing and conducting research and development work aimed at creating modern technologies.

The state unitary enterprise UzTechTrade is also being created, which will import military and dual-use products.

The decree instructed to develop a draft State Defense Order Bill before March 1, 2024.

Note: The State Committee for Defense Industry was established in Uzbekistan in 2017. It is engaged in providing the Armed Forces of Uzbekistan with military equipment, weapons, food and other material and technical means. The structure of the committee includes five enterprises. During this time, enterprises of the military-industrial complex of Uzbekistan have mastered the production of light armored vehicles, drones, night vision devices and various combat modules.