Tom
ACIG Team
Joined: Jan 20, 2002
Posts: 3166
From: Vienna, Austria
Posted: 2003-06-19 19:15
Gents,
I think this is a true "hot topic", we somehow forgot to discuss so far.
Newest reports about the condition and status of the Russian military are getting even worse than only few years back.
Fighter pilots, just for example, do not get even 20 hours average flying time annually, but only 14. Most of the other pilots do not get even this. The RuAF is not receiving even 1/5th of the fuel it should be receiving.
Murder claims up to 600 troops per year (this is, just for example, something like 20 times more than in the US military); additional 400 to 600 soldiers - foremost draftees - commit suicide each year.
Different problems - like bad weather, fires, lack of spares etc. - knock out whole military communication systems for days, weeks, and sometimes even longer (this includes even those ground stations used for satellite communication).
Commanders are sometimes forced to seize local electricity plants to prevent the loss of power to their bases - especially those with ICBMs.
In the Navy, thieves - almost all are officers - are stripping ships of valuable equipment and selling this to criminals.
Alcoholism is more widespread than ever before, and family life of all too many officers completely destroyed: desperation and loss of orientation are endemic.
Troops are poorely equipped and supplied: cases of malnutrition are known. Draft is hated, and increasingly avoided by all possible means: barely 12% of all men in draft-age are indeed entering military service, as all the others avoid it. In turn, this means that the military is getting only 2nd class recruits: 30% of these are actually ill, the health condition of many is such that the regulations have to be relaxed for them...
Realistic training is non-existing, and what is left of even the basic training is obviously not worth much: Russian troops are known to be rather ready to risk injury than wear outmoded or non-functional protective gear. The US per-troop expenditure meanwhile exceeds that of the Russian by something like 50 times.
The basic structures of the military are increasingly breaking apart: the provisions and equipment are of extremely poor quality, and 95% of existing units are unable to even properly survive every-day existance, not to talk about undertaking every-day training on schedule, and certainly almost none are capable of conduct of military operations of any kind.
Kremlin is promising to tackle these problems since years, but I don't see anything really important, influential, being done, and certainly the situation is not improving.
So, was anything done at all to improve the situation? Was there a reduction in manpower and the size of fielded forces Putin promised already three years back - and if: any idea about which units were disbanded? Is the Russian military to become an all-professional force soon, as some experts suggested it should? Is there any serious hope for even a slightest improvement of the situation in the next five to ten years?
_________________
Tom Cooper
Editor, ACIG.org
ACIG Team
Joined: Jan 20, 2002
Posts: 3166
From: Vienna, Austria
Posted: 2003-06-19 19:15
Gents,
I think this is a true "hot topic", we somehow forgot to discuss so far.
Newest reports about the condition and status of the Russian military are getting even worse than only few years back.
Fighter pilots, just for example, do not get even 20 hours average flying time annually, but only 14. Most of the other pilots do not get even this. The RuAF is not receiving even 1/5th of the fuel it should be receiving.
Murder claims up to 600 troops per year (this is, just for example, something like 20 times more than in the US military); additional 400 to 600 soldiers - foremost draftees - commit suicide each year.
Different problems - like bad weather, fires, lack of spares etc. - knock out whole military communication systems for days, weeks, and sometimes even longer (this includes even those ground stations used for satellite communication).
Commanders are sometimes forced to seize local electricity plants to prevent the loss of power to their bases - especially those with ICBMs.
In the Navy, thieves - almost all are officers - are stripping ships of valuable equipment and selling this to criminals.
Alcoholism is more widespread than ever before, and family life of all too many officers completely destroyed: desperation and loss of orientation are endemic.
Troops are poorely equipped and supplied: cases of malnutrition are known. Draft is hated, and increasingly avoided by all possible means: barely 12% of all men in draft-age are indeed entering military service, as all the others avoid it. In turn, this means that the military is getting only 2nd class recruits: 30% of these are actually ill, the health condition of many is such that the regulations have to be relaxed for them...
Realistic training is non-existing, and what is left of even the basic training is obviously not worth much: Russian troops are known to be rather ready to risk injury than wear outmoded or non-functional protective gear. The US per-troop expenditure meanwhile exceeds that of the Russian by something like 50 times.
The basic structures of the military are increasingly breaking apart: the provisions and equipment are of extremely poor quality, and 95% of existing units are unable to even properly survive every-day existance, not to talk about undertaking every-day training on schedule, and certainly almost none are capable of conduct of military operations of any kind.
Kremlin is promising to tackle these problems since years, but I don't see anything really important, influential, being done, and certainly the situation is not improving.
So, was anything done at all to improve the situation? Was there a reduction in manpower and the size of fielded forces Putin promised already three years back - and if: any idea about which units were disbanded? Is the Russian military to become an all-professional force soon, as some experts suggested it should? Is there any serious hope for even a slightest improvement of the situation in the next five to ten years?
_________________
Tom Cooper
Editor, ACIG.org
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