Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu laid the cornerstone of a new military command and control center in Moscow on Monday, RIA Novosti reported.
The National Center of Defense Administration is designed to unite all branches of military command, the Defense Ministry's press department announced.
Work must be completed by the end of this year to comply with an order signed by President Vladimir Putin in late 2013, Shoigu said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
The center will allow the military to make "substantiated, thoroughly developed proposals for the decision-making of the country's leadership, to react to all crisis situations in real time," Shoigu said previously.
During a conference call last week, he declared construction of the center one of the Defense Ministry's top priorities for 2014, second to its primary goal of developing military infrastructure in the Arctic.
"On the level of management of the armed forces much lies ahead of us, beginning with systematic training of personnel and ending with refining the command system through application of the most modern technology," Shoigu said.
