State of the Russian Army in 2012
Preface.
The following material is not the fruit of my work, but only a summary of the article by Lieutenant-General V. Sobolev, the former commander of the 58 Army (2003-06), published in the April 2002 publication of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Therefore, I do not take responsibility for the figures and data given here, leaving it all on V. Sobolev’s conscience.
Immediately make a reservation - I am not a member and not a supporter of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. And the Communist in this party is only one word in the name, but not in reality. In fact, Zyuganov and co. they simply exploit the longing of the older generation for the ideals of communism for their own selfish interests. Since the Communist Party in opposition to the existing regime in Russia today, they willingly publish materials that compromise the current regime. Including the truthful.
I must note that what the author of a newspaper article describes is very much the same as the data that comes to me from many sources, both Russian and foreign. That's why I decided to acquaint readers with this article. She very concisely, but accurately and clearly describes the state of the Armed Forces of the country for the spring 2012 year.
It follows from it that when speaking about the “successful reform of the Russian Armed Forces,” our president means not at all what we mean, ordinary citizens of the country.
We believe that the Armed Forces should be such as to be able to protect the country and the population from any attempts from the outside or from within to impose upon us, by military or political means, those standards of life and moral rules that the United States and the European Union like, but not we want
The president obviously proceeds from the interests of the Russian comprador bourgeoisie and the bureaucracy.
Help. The comprador bourgeoisie (from the Spanish comprador - purchased), part of the bourgeoisie of economically backward countries engaged in trading intermediation with foreign companies on the domestic and foreign markets and closely associated with large capitalist states. The comprador bourgeoisie was born in the era of the colonial system of imperialism. It was formed primarily from the part of national exploiting groups and classes (merchants, usurers, feudal lords and tribal nobility), which unconditionally subordinated to foreign capital, both in political and in economic relations and was used by the latter in their own interests.
so, in the field of military construction there is an antagonistic contradiction between the interests of the overwhelming majority of the country's population and the interests of modern large Russian business living and surviving solely due to, let's say frankly, selling off the country's national wealth (oil, gas, forest ...).
Therefore, I cannot and do not want to blame the president for deceiving the people and hiding the true state of our once truly powerful and invincible army for reasons of its lack of will and non-state thinking. No, it would be too simplified and radically incorrect assessment of what he says and does.
We just have with him completely different coordinate systems. Simply put, that is very bad and deadly for us, from the point of view of the head of the comprador bourgeoisie and the bureaucracy of the president is good and right.
Sobolev, as the author of the article, is in the thrall of ideas that the president proceeds in his speeches from the same concepts as we, i.e. ordinary citizens.
But in general, the president does not envy. He has to be considered at the same time:
1.With the mood and perceptions of the population about what should be the Armed Forces of the country and who want their lives, property, peace of mind to be reliably protected.
2. With the demands of the comprador bourgeoisie (that is to say, today's large Russian business) and the comprador bureaucracy that they have to maintain, which coincide with the needs of large foreign capital and their governments (see paragraph 3).
3. With the requirements of the US Department of State and NATO, which consist in the fact that the Russian army at the same time should not be some serious military force, and at the same time cause fear and hostility among the leaders and the population of all neighboring countries (new and old). At the same time, the state of our army should be such that countries opposing the United States would not be tempted to look for an ally and support in Russia.
It can be said that today the president manages to balance between these basic underlying conditions.
I recommend that readers mainly focus on the specifics of information about our army and not be surprised at the surprise of V. Sobolev.
And further. The article was compiled before the president was forced to remove from his post the Minister of Defense Marshal Taburetkin for the incredible scope of the embezzlement. At the same time (with the beginning of the half-hidden aggression of the United States and NATO in Syria), in my opinion, the Kremlin finally realized that with the loss of the army, Russia ceased to be a power in the world, as a result of which Russian capital irresistibly loses its sales markets. The new Minister of Defense, Army General Shoigu SK began to make heroic efforts to preserve what else is possible to preserve. Will it have him, time will tell. However, in a matter of years, it is hardly possible to restore the fact that since March 1985 (coming to power of M.S. Gorbachev) was destroyed consistently, planned and extremely competently.
In general, there is little reason for optimism.
End of the preface.
Below is the abbreviated text of the article by V. Sobolev entitled "The Grandsons of the Victory Powder Drain". I just allowed myself to change the division of the article into paragraphs in order to make it easier to read and to focus the attention of readers on key points. And something highlighted in bold. You can not read my comments.
So:
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.... the election article of the then presidential candidate V. Putin, devoted to the Russian Armed Forces and the defense industry, is full of optimism, and people who are far from military problems can, perhaps, cause a sense of pride in our current army and fleet. It, in fact, was designed, apparently, only to strengthen the failing rating of the "national leader."
However, according to these experts, if in this article the Putin program for the development of the Defense Industrial Complex is really outlined, its implementation is a direct path to the collapse of Russia as an independent, independent state.
I will begin my comments from the Ground Forces, the basis of the general-purpose forces, from those who must directly repel the invading aggressor and defeat it.
In his article in the “What has been done” section, V. Putin writes:
"There are no longer any reduced units in our army. More than 100 combined-arms and special brigades are deployed in the Ground Forces. These are full-fledged combat units, staffed with personnel and equipment. The standard of alert lifting is one hour. Transfer to a potential theater of military actions - 24 hours." .
But are these 100 brigades enough for the country to feel safe, and does this correspond to the modern military-political situation in the world and the threats that are emerging today?
The West, mired in a systematic deepening crisis, is trying to solve its problems by unleashing local wars in various parts of the world. Already defeated Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya. Next in line is Syria, Iran.
Who is next? Is it not Russia, surrounded from all sides by the American and NATO bases, including in Central Asia, to which our “national leader” contributed in no small measure?
So, 100 brigades.
Of these, 39 combined arms motorized rifle and tank (there are only three of them), who are directly fighting.
Special brigades only support and provide them.
Motorized rifle brigade - the main compound of the Russian army "new look" - in its combat capabilities, the number of combat units is no different from the disbanded regiments.
It has the same three motorized rifle battalions and one tank, artillery and anti-aircraft divisions. They were created on the basis of one of the regiments of the disbanded divisions.
In the division there are four such regiments, including one tank.
39 combined arms brigade in its combat equivalent is less than 10 divisions!
Less, because in the division there are still artillery and anti-aircraft missile regiments, a separate tank battalion.
As a result, there are fewer 10 divisions for all of our huge Russia!
Combined arms brigades are consolidated in the army. In total in the Russian Ground Forces there are ten armies.
Each of them should have a 3 — 4 brigade. But in some armies there are more of them. For example, in the 58 Army, there are seven brigades, but in 29which management occupies now buildings of the former headquarters of the Siberian military district in Chita, - only one.
Only one team in the territory from Ulan-Ude to Belogorsk! And this is about three thousand kilometers of the state border!
Comment by V.Yu.G. One brigade is three motorized rifle battalions and one tank battalion (31 tank). Thus, for one thousand kilometers of the front there is one battalion (of the order of 400 fighters) and 10 (ten!) Tanks. This we did not have even in February 1918.
Special brigades are army brigades: missile, artillery, anti-aircraft, command brigades in ten armies of their 40.
The remaining 20 are listed in district kits. That's all our ground forces.
Comment by V.Yu.G. V.Sobolev why did not mention that among the 60 special brigades, besides missile, anti-aircraft, artillery, which at the very least, but also shoot, there are also brigades of chemical protection, communications, engineering, piping, rear, etc. they cannot fight on their own, and can only provide for military operations.
For comparison: the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army met, having in its composition 303 divisions.
Now about the quality of the brigade "new look".
The troops are simply not manned.
Our allegedly million-strong army now lacks more than 200 thousand people. Hence, the combat readiness of our brigades today is significantly limited.
By the way, our "partners" in NATO are well aware of this.
Extremely low and the training of personnel. Soldiers of military service serve one year. The call stretches for several months.
Comment by V.Yu.G. Military science clearly indicates that a single infantry soldier of average qualities can be trained in 2-3 of the year. Do not believe? Then answer the simple question - what are the terms of training in vocational schools for welders, turners, millers? The same 2-3 of the year. Anyone who believes that the soldier infantry science is easier than the art of making hairstyles, let the first person throw a stone at me.
Many conscripts come to the army with a body mass deficiency, and before embarking on their training, the children have to be fattened in hospitals.
The situation is even worse with the formation of recruits. Guys often come to the army with two or three classes of elementary school, and sometimes even illiterate at all (Shoigu let it slip - up to 20% recruits are elementally illiterate). Under these conditions, it is simply impossible to prepare specialists who determine the combat capability of subunits — gunners-operators, driver-mechanics of tanks and combat vehicles, artillerymen, anti-aircraft gunners, reconnaissance agents — and qualitatively.
Comment by V.Yu.G. During the years of my officer service in the engineering troops, literally all the draftees had a secondary education. With the 8-9 classes were units. For our entire 650, a separate paratroop battalion in 1974, there were 3 people like that. And when in the spring of 1975 a soldier with 5 classes came to the battalion, he immediately became the object of close attention of the whole party political apparatus. The head of the political department of the special units of the Lesozavodsky garrison, coming to the battalion, was always interested in how this unique soldier served.
So what kind of combat readiness is discussed in the article by V. Putin? I would very much like our Supreme Commander to somehow pick up and suddenly check the combat readiness of any of the brigades. I am sure that not only in an hour, but in a few days, she will not bring herself to combat readiness, and even more so she will not be ready to be transferred "to a potential theater of military actions", as Putin writes about bravo.
Comment by V.Yu.G. In general, the president’s assurances "The norm of their alarming is one hour." they make one doubt that even though he was a major, he served in the army. This even in the best of times in the Soviet Army could not be achieved. Nowhere. Even in the Troops Groups abroad, where the combat readiness was actually two heads higher than in the internal districts. This is impossible even technically. Unless in cases when the unit commander needed to have a window dressing (with the knowledge and consent of the inspecting superiors)! In such cases, the equipment was still warming up in the evening (the "coffins" were dragged away from the park to the far end), personnel lay in beds already dressed, and the officers with their disturbing suitcases hid in the porches of nearby houses. And everyone knew exactly up to a minute when the inspecting person "suddenly announced an alarm."
And one more important point. The organizational structure of the brigade is more cumbersome than the regiment. In essence, this is a regiment with a divisional set of support and maintenance units, and this greatly complicates the management of a brigade even during training, and what about the combat conditions. Many times I have been convinced of this in practice. Well, the fact that the brigade allegedly "possesses greater shock power than the division" is probably known only to V. Putin himself or to the person who wrote him this article, that is, to a dilettante full in military affairs.
Comment by V.Yu.G. Military specialists who advocated the abandonment of the divisional-regimental system meant the abolition of such instances as regimental headquarters and divisional headquarters. If there were three or four battalions in the regiment, and three or four regiments constituted a division, then three or four regimental headquarters were supposed to be liquidated, and the battalions that had previously been part of them were merged into two brigades of the 5-8 battalions. At the same time, many of them suggested, nevertheless, to preserve the division, as an administrative and managerial and providing authority. Those. there is a division headquarters to which units and subunits of combat and rear support are subordinated (communications, engineering, chemical protection, maintenance, rear, etc.). And there are two or three brigades that are exempt from all auxiliary and logistical concerns, but are purely operational-tactical units.
Our furniture reformers simply renamed the division headquarters as the brigade headquarters (of course, drastically reducing the number of such headquarters), eliminated all but one regiment in the division. This regiment eliminated the headquarters, subordinating each battalion directly to the headquarters of the division (I mean the headquarters of the brigade).
In this case, no one has taken care of the alteration of combat regulations. The old ones are now completely unsuitable due to a radical change in the whole structure of the army, and no one is going to develop new ones and does not intend to.
Now about the Air Force in which "7 large aviation bases with powerful infrastructure ".
Let's figure it out here. The air base of the "new air force image" is two or three air squadrons. Is that enough for our huge Russia?
Then Putin writes: "Over the past four years - for the first time in 20 years - 28 airfields have been overhauled. This year, work is planned on 12 airfields".
What is our "national leader" about? Indeed, three days before the article was published at the meeting with Putin, Honored Test Pilot, Hero of Russia T. Tolboev reported with pain in his voice that 1223 remained from 120 airfields, 1600 from 60 take-off and landing grounds.
1800 1200 combat aircraft need to be repaired and are not flying now.
It is time to speak not about the Air Force, but about air dystrophy.
Not better things in the defense. In Air Defense Forces the arrival of new technology ceased in the 1994 year and did not resume until the 2007 year. In the country's air defense there are huge "holes". The largest of them between Khabarovsk and Irkutsk is 3400 kilometers.
Not covered the most important economic centers of the country: Perm, Izhevsk, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Tula, Ulyanovsk.
Even some divisions of the Strategic Missile Forces are not protected from air strikes.
Now on navy. The ship fleet has more than quadrupled. Only in recent years, it has decreased by 60 percent.
As part of our fleet there is a modern heavy nuclear missile cruiser "Peter the Great". Four such cruisers were built in the Soviet Union. "Peter the Great" - the last of them.
The first three ships entered the fleet before the fleet, and by the year of 2000, when V. Putin became president, they already required major repairs. But the money for their repair in the country, which hit the petrodollar "rain", was not found.
And here, please, a vivid example of what has already been done. In the recent march to the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, as part of a detachment of ships was our only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov. Statewide, there should be two aviation and a helicopter regiment - the entire 72 aircraft, including 48 assault and fighter aircraft.
However, at the time of the trip, only 8 (!) Aircraft were on board.
For comparison: on each of the 12 American aircraft carriers is from 80 to 110 aircraft.
Now about the strategic nuclear forces which are based on the Strategic Missile Forces.
The Strategic Missile Forces had combat railroad missile systems, mine and mobile-based missile systems.
The most invulnerable of them, capable, if necessary, of delivering a guaranteed nuclear retaliatory strike, were the railway missile systems RT-23.
It was precisely the missile divisions BZHRK that the Americans most feared.
And if the M. Gorbachev at their request, put these divisions to the joke,
а B. Yeltsin “illuminated” them with special beacons so that our “partners” would not lose sight of them, it was V. Putin who destroyed BZhRK.
In the years of V. Putin’s rule, the best missile divisions with the mine-based Satan missile complexes (in Western terminology) were ruthlessly destroyed.
These missiles were able to overcome any missile defense system, including the promising, missile defense, they had in the warhead ten nuclear warheads of individual guidance and the same number of imitators of these warheads - false targets for the enemy.
So the current monoblock "Topol" do not go with them in any comparison.
In 2001, I was forced to witness how one of our best missile divisions was destroyed in Aleisk, a small town in the Altai Territory. American observers were there until the last mine was blown up and the last missile destroyed.
It is V. Putin destroyed the most important element of a missile attack warning system - our radar station in Cuba in Lourdes, which controlled all of North America.
And in the article the Prime Minister, as if nothing had happened, writes that "the capabilities of this system have seriously increased"
The situation is bad in the naval component of the nuclear triad. In the 1991 year of Russia, the 55 nuclear submarines of strategic purpose passed from the USSR, and all of them by 2015 will be removed from combat duty.
It is tragic that from 1990 to 2007 the year in Russia was not built a single nuclear submarine of strategic purpose.
In service with the Russian Air Force are only 13 strategic bombers Tu-160 and 63 bomber Tu-95MS.
All of them are Soviet-made and have long exhausted the technical terms of operation.
In the course of the last radical reform of the Armed Forces, the logistics and technical support systems were destroyed.
V. Putin, in his article, calls it "getting rid of unusual, auxiliary functions - economic, household and others."
But Marshal Zhukov believed that "any brilliantly designed operation without the corresponding technical and logistical support will remain beautiful arrows on the map."
I'm not talking about the fact that the transfer of functions of logistics and technical support of troops to commercial structures costs the state an order of magnitude more expensive.
РThe military education system has also been destroyed. From 65 military universities created 10 research and training centers. “All these institutions,” according to Putin, “are built into a rigid vertical and, depending on their service, give officers the opportunity to constantly improve their professional level @.
But, allow me, what are we talking about, when for two years now there has been no recruitment of students and cadets for military universities and scientific and educational centers.
In the combined arms academy created by "reformers" on the basis of three academies: the name of M.V. Frunze, armored and military engineering, - at the command department now only two (!) officers from the FSO.
This year, the academy is expected to recruit students who will be trained in it for only ten months.
The General Staff Academy has also become a six-month course, the pride of Russian and Soviet military education.
Concerning military science, now it's just does not exist.
In addition, the reform of the army was carried out contrary to the recommendations of military scientists. Their recommendations were simply discarded as unnecessary.
And what is still in our army already done?
Here's how to answer this question. NATO military analysts: "As a result of the reforms carried out, the Armed Forces of Russia are not able to more successfully solve tasks even in local conflicts,
The Russian army does not have enough vehicles to transport troops over long distances, does not have a sufficient number of airplanes and pilots who can fly in any weather, there is no single information system.
The army lacks soldiers ... "
Everyone knows that the state defense order for 2011 year was broken. Until October 2011, the Ministry of Defense did not enter into a single contract with defense companies.
The defense industrial complex of the country is in direst condition. Chronic underfunding or, like last year, its almost complete absence led to the fact that the country's military-industrial complex is degrading and rapidly losing the ability to produce modern types of weapons and military equipment.
In order for them to appear, it is necessary to provide advanced funding for research and development work. However, they are financed by us on a residual basis.
Non-production enterprises lose skilled workers and engineers. The process of loss of technology in the country's defense industry has become landslide. In 1999 — 2004, thousands of technologies were annually lost in 1,5 — 2.
The last qualified personnel are leaving, the unique production is being destroyed.
Following the loss of technology, scientific schools began to die.
And what is the way out of this most difficult situation found V. Putin?
In his article, he writes: "The development of the defense industrial complex only by the state is ineffective right now, and in the medium term, it is economically impossible ... All the leading manufacturers weapons and US and European military equipment - non-state ... It is new private companies that can be a source of technological breakthroughs that can radically change the industry. "
I have a legitimate question: in which country, in which school, in which university and on what textbooks did V. Putin study? Did he really forget or not know that in the Soviet Union such a military-industrial complex was created in ten years, thanks to which the Red Army broke the back of a fascist beast armed with weapons manufacturers and military equipment from all of Europe. And not only Europe.
Does he not know historical the fact that almost all the leading American companies, including General Motors and Ford, provided Nazi Germany with metal, components for weapons and military equipment, equipment, fuel, and even fuses and explosives. Trade was under the slogan "Business is business - and nothing personal." The Germans paid in gold, including cast from dental crowns and gold items seized during the destruction of Jews in concentration camps.
Does V.Putin, relying on private business, actually think that our Prokhorov, Deripaska, promissory notes and Abramovich are more patriotic than the American Rockefellers, Rothschilds, Dupons and Fords?
And if this article is V. Putin’s program in the development of our Armed Forces and the country's defense industry, its implementation will not only make Russia stronger, but also threaten its very existence as an independent, independent state.
The end of the article V. Sobolev.
PS Yes, do not swear at Putin, Medvedev. They are not free in their decisions. This is just the locum tenens of the throne. The country is not ruled by them. Be in their place Zhirinovsky, Zyuganov, Nemtsov, Lemons, Bulk, Udaltsov or any other, they will be forced to do the same. Only nuances in the form of other rhetoric are possible.
And all the hysterics of these today's oppositionists and human rights activists that in Moscow squares, which in the Duma are caused solely by the desire to seize on the fat cake, which today they do not share, but the Putin company.
Really, I am very sorry for those naive simple Muscovites who, on the May days of 2012, risking their health, and even their lives, spend their time, effort and money to help some crooks to shove the others out of their pie. You are citizens, in any case you will not get ANYTHING!
In fact, everything in the country is decided by Abramovich, Prokhorov, Vekselberg, Potanin, Berezovsky, Derpaski and their ilk. Any real improvements in the state of the army are possible only if a large and largest national bourgeoisie emerges in the country, whose income and well-being will depend entirely on how strong and strong the Russian power is.
Is it possible - I do not know. And absolutely nothing after August 1991 does not depend on us in the country.
Sources and literature.
1. Informational bulletin of the Communist Party Central Committee "Pravda". April 2012
2. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Soviet encyclopedia. Moscow. 1969-1978.
Information