Defense Ministry changes priorities

At his recent meeting with Vladimir Putin, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said that in 2011, about 2 trillions of rubles would be allocated to the needs of the Russian army, which by the way is 19 percent of the total Russian budget for this year. A significant part of these funds will be directed to the modernization of the army and the purchase of new modern types of weapons.

According to most military experts, this money will go primarily to rearm the nuclear deterrence forces, air forces, air defense forces and fleet... According to some estimates, about 70 percent of the entire military budget will be spent on their maintenance. Thus, the maintenance of artillery, ground, and tank parts remains a very small amount. From this we can conclude that the Ministry of Defense has relied on more modern types of troops and refuses the usual classic ones. Whether the Ministry of Defense is right, and what is the current situation of the troops that are not honored, we will analyze a little below.

Artillery

In the most difficult, if not distressed, is artillery. On it from the budget allocated mere pennies. First of all, this is due to the fact that most of the domestic types of artillery are an order of magnitude inferior to foreign analogues. For example, in foreign artillery installations, the firing range reaches 70 km., And in our, even the most modern models, it is no more than 30 km. The same goes for shooting accuracy. Therefore, if you start investing money in the modernization of Russian artillery, you will need to replace almost all existing howitzers and guns with new ones. Naturally, the state does not have such means, and it simply excluded artillery from the priority types of troops. In principle, the solution is quite sound, especially when you consider that in modern realities the use of classical types of artillery is increasingly giving way to high-precision types. weapons.

Tank troops

At present, there are two separate tank brigades in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, as well as 20 tank battalions in combined arms brigades. The total number of tanks about 20 thousands of units. And most of them are outdated T-72 and T-80, which no longer meet modern requirements for the protection of personnel and have outdated means of firing.

According to experts, it is unlikely that new types of tanks will be delivered to tank units. So according to some reports, the Ministry of Defense plans to purchase no more than 2020 tanks a year in the period up to 10. If this information is true, then by the year 2020 the number of tanks in our army
can be reduced in 10 times and will total 2000.

At first glance, this should greatly affect the defense capability of the Russian Federation, but in reality this is not quite so. If we recall the recent military conflicts, the role of tanks in them was extremely small. It is enough to recall the New Year storming of Grozny in 1994, where tanks not only didn’t bring any practical benefit, but, on the contrary, were an excellent target for the enemy (26 was destroyed from 20 tanks). By the way, many foreign countries are also gradually abandoning tank forces. In Germany, the number of tanks decreased by 5 times and now there are only 500 units.

Ground troops

The maintenance of the infantry is also not provided for serious financial influences. Apparently, the Ministry of Defense believes that in the next 10 years, our soldiers will still manage the legendary AK-74. Although now in Russia there are prototypes of small arms of the new type - this is still the same modernized Kalashnikov assault rifle with the 200 index, or the Abakan assault rifle with a thermal sight. However, at the moment, these types come only in small batches to the special forces of the internal troops and army. From this we can conclude that the role of the infantry in modern warfare is not the same as before. The current task of the infantry - this battle with a small number of the enemy, and large-scale battles of the Second World War sank into oblivion.

So the idea of ​​abandoning the classic types of troops and the support of more modern ones is not as bad as it seems at first glance. Naturally, this idea will have many opponents, because there will always be those who do not believe in progress and try to leave everything as it is. This has already been in our national storieswhen, in 30-40, they tried to disband the cavalry, then there were also many opponents of this idea, but history put everything in its place.

If you look at things objectively, then precisely nuclear weapons, the Air Force, the Air Defense Force and the fleet are the main guarantor of Russia's security at the moment. Therefore, it is necessary to invest money in them. Only this should be done, gradually and openly, and not as it is now. It is necessary to declare in advance about the reduction of certain types of troops, so that the officers were ready for this, and did not learn about it at the last moment. It is necessary to explain to society that modern realities are such that our country is incapable of maintaining a large army, and this is not advisable, since by modernizing the above mentioned branches of service we will significantly increase the country's defense and reduce the size of the army. And this, in turn, will make it possible to significantly increase the wages of officers, and perhaps even transfer the army to a contract basis.

Comments

[Serg]

Interestingly, the person who wrote this opus has read in his life at least one military journal or a serious book, or at worst at least reports about the storming of that same Grozny? No, it's his business to write campaign materials!

[vasy]

Worst of all, this idea will really be implemented. And instead of drawing conclusions from recent lessons, the flightless Bulava, an analogue of the super expensive and even unnecessary Raptor Khazyevs, the miracle of Mistral technology (ships of this class even the USSR with its incomparably great capabilities) and Italian cars (well, you must have an armored member).

Yes, the author of the article is really far from reality.
If only I looked at what they are working in the West and in Israel. KAZ has a nickname for tanks and heavy armored personnel carriers with mine protection in the first place, and the latest tank modifications occur constantly: Leopard Revolution, Merkava 4, South Korean Panther, new Japanese tank, Chinese 99, Polish anders, etc. And we are destroying exactly what saved Russia from complete collapse! On the face of a clear sabotage!

[KDS]

Dear Serg, you know how to see much better in military science. So, tell me the fool, what did the tanks and infantry fighting vehicles in the city of Grozny in 1994? Except as they rushed along the shallow streets in agony, interfering with each other and being an excellent target for grenade throwers. Which effortlessly shot them. I have already given statistics on tanks, out of 120 infantry fighting vehicles, by the way, no more than a dozen have returned.

And please name the war, except for the Second World War, where tanks played a decisive role? The bottom line is that the use of tanks in the city is suicide, and tank battles like the Kursk Bulge are already impossible from a practical point of view, and aviation will immediately destroy them.

[Alexander]

In the world, not one of the developed countries has stopped the development of conventional weapons. At the exhibition in Paris this year, a large number of new models were presented. Israel and Germany presented new tanks because , the experience of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has shown that infantry cannot fight without tanks. As for Chechnya, when they put on tanks what should be on them, use them competently, losses are reduced by an order of magnitude and more. In the late 90s in Russia has published a number of articles about the creation of a ground-air weapons complex on the basis of MBT, which will dramatically increase its combat effectiveness. Now China and Italy are developing in this direction. As for the Defense Ministry's plans to develop and purchase weapons and military equipment, in three years we will say: "We wanted the best, but it turned out, as always. "

[Serg]

Dear KDS, before citing incomprehensible statistics and misleading readers, I advise you to turn to open sources and read what is written there:
magazine Front-line illustration №9 2007 and №1 2008 (p. 48) "Tanks in the battles for Grozny" and the official book. Military losses of Russia and the USSR in the 20th century.
The losses of the federals on April 1 by the time the storming of the formidable 49 tanks ended, and this after the defeat of 10-13 thousand militant groups defending the city, this is not such a bad result. And the city was taken!

And about artillery you write nonsense at all. This most "precision" weapon is just artillery and is used by Cophead 1-2, Smart, Bonus, Skit, Merlin, new Excalibur, Krasnopol, Brave, etc. Ask what it is and how to use it without artillery?

[Alex]

An idiot or a person completely unfamiliar with the topic may not understand the role of tanks in Chechnya.

KDS, you give the statistics of the Maykop brigade, and this is a separate topic, because the brigade was defeated. The role of tanks in the formidable is HUGE - it is supporting infantry with fire, fighting snipers, firing points, enemy armored vehicles. With all these tasks, the tanks successfully coped with how much reasonable control. Mass battle should not be forgotten - we have China at hand.