Konstantin Sivkov: Supporters of the purchase of foreign weapons - outright enemies of Russia
“This is a complete madness. Military specialists cannot bear such nonsense, and only those who pretend to be military specialists are capable of saying such things. Modern Russian weapons for almost twenty years have practically not been updated. This happened because in 1991, the treacherous elite came to power in the country. These are toddlers, opportunists, who keep their money in the West, they strive to enrich themselves, their personal skin, their pockets as much as possible. It is this elite that is responsible for the collapse of the Russian army, ”said Konstantin Sivkov, a well-known military expert, Doctor of Military Sciences, Vice-President of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, in an interview with the Russian People’s Line, commenting on the proposals of individual experts that Russia should buy military equipment abroad, in the West.
According to RIA News, the Russian military have already stopped buying a Kalashnikov assault rifle. This was announced on Tuesday by the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Federation Nikolay Makarov. In the near future, the military intend to manage the old stocks of small weapons and wait for the adoption of a new model. But the choice of a modern machine for the army will not be easy. “We refused [them],” commented Makarov on the situation with purchases of AK-74 assault rifles. Refused for a very simple reason. The Ministry of Defense is now forced to partially reduce the mobilization reserve depots where weapons and property are stored. But there are a lot of warehouses left from Soviet times: almost all adults can be armed.
As the observer of RIA Novosti notes, “the most interesting thing in modernization is that a lot of private arms firms can be included in its process on a tender basis. The gross order of hundreds of thousands of “new old” automata from the manufacturer (Izhmash) is actually a purchase from a monopoly. But the improvement competition with state guarantees for placing orders can be won by almost any company that offers a good option. ”
“In the end, in the West there are a lot of firms that, on the orders of private military corporations,“ tune ”their weapons. Tellingly, the typical AKM of the 7.62 caliber is a favorite “platform” of mercenaries, one of the most popular trunks of private security officials in Iraq and Afghanistan, ”the article says further.
As Konstantin Sivkov, in turn, noted, “in the West, the elite is no better than ours.” “There are basically the same skins there as ours. In fact, at present, the intensive development of armaments around the world has stalled. American Tanks "Abrams" M1A2 are no superior, and in many respects they are significantly inferior to Russian T-90 tanks. As for warships, in the United States ships and ships built in 1970-1990 form the basis of the ship’s composition, that is, about the same time as in Russia. According to the US Air Force, it is based on F-15, F-16 aircraft, that is, cars built in the 1970-1990s. Our main fleet consists of Su-27, MiG-29, Su-24 aircraft - that is, aircraft of about the same time. As for the air defense system, the quality of the domestic S-300 complex and the American Patriot complex are almost complete parity. If we take into account our S-400 anti-aircraft missile system, then in the West there is no analogue to it so far. True, for this complex have not yet made a missile with an ultra-long range. But this is a matter of technology and time, ”continued the expert.
“In the West, it was possible to preserve the scientific and technical schools, whereas in our country it was largely destroyed in recent years. But this does not mean that we now have to say goodbye to the remnants of our military-technical school, to the remnants of our military-industrial complex. For twenty years, we have not had enough funding for the defense industry complex. But the latest development of the Kornet missile systems, beginning in the 1990s, showed their complete superiority over similar American complexes. In addition, they are completely superior to armor penetration. In any case, the Israeli tanks, the most powerful and protected of all Western tanks, were not able to withstand even in frontal projection of the Kornet complex, which, by the way, the Israeli leadership itself admitted. The question was asked how Kornet got to Lebanon, and it turned out that in this country he had been tested in combat conditions, ”Sivkov said.
“We are not inferior to the West in the quality of military equipment. However, the leadership of the Ministry of Defense purposefully stifled the defense industrial complex of Russia. If its proper financing existed, then we could fully ensure the supply of our weapons to the troops. Instead, we are offered to pay at exorbitant prices for similar samples of foreign military equipment, ”the expert emphasized.
“I heard statements by a certain Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, who claimed that the alleged German tank Leopard was three times cheaper than our T-90. Apparently, the commander-in-chief forgot that we are talking about the Leopard of the first modification, which is not suitable for our T-90, and which is kept by the Germans in warehouses, while even in combat units it has not been received for a long time. While the German "Leopards" modifications A5 and A6 are a half to two times more expensive than the domestic T-90, which is equivalent to him in combat qualities. And the best evidence of the high quality of our weapons is that Russian military equipment ranks first in the world in the arms market. By the criterion of cost - efficiency, it is far ahead of Western models, ”said Sivkov.
“We are witnessing how, thanks to the efforts of the current political elite of Russia, absolutely unnecessary Russian the fleet Four universal landing ships of the Mistral type. We see and are witnessing how we purchase foreign Iveco armored vehicles, which in terms of their technical characteristics are completely inconsistent with the operating conditions in Russia and even inferior to our “Wolf” and “Tiger” armored vehicles in terms of available specifications, ”he continued.
“I have to emphasize: the talk about the need to purchase foreign weapons comes from people who are not experts in the field of weapons. If they were specialists, then at least they would behave more finely, they would reason more scientifically, and they would not blurt out publicly such blatant nonsense. I do not understand what kind of people. But, among other things, and this is the main thing - they are frank enemies of Russia who set themselves the task of justifying the destruction of Russia's sovereignty in the sphere of military-technical policy, ”concluded Konstantin Sivkov.
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