Yes, the season of little or no news continues . . . but there’s always something to write.
On 29 December, Krasnaya zvezda provided a little holiday treat — a year-ending issue filled with official views on a variety of topics:
- Priorities of Armed Forces Organizational Development.
- Armed Forces Manning.
- State Program of Armaments.
- Global Political-Military Situation.
- Improving the Military VUZ System.
- State of Military Discipline.
- Transition to a Unitary System of Armed Forces Material-Technical Support.
- Provision of Housing to Servicemen.
A cornucopia of data for discerning and careful readers.
Caught up in the joy of the holidays, many probably overlooked these articles.
Let’s have a look at the first one — Priorities of Armed Forces Organizational Development.
What’s interesting is we’re given a little peep show into a much more interesting, detailed, and lengthy document — “The Concept of Organizational and Force Development of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the Period to 2020” — approved by President Dmitriy Medvedev on 19 April 2010, with absolutely no fanfare.
What we don’t know is how this little peek inside the document was edited. We don’t know what was emphasized, or left out, and why.
A couple preliminaries. First, the title in the vernacular is “строительства и развития Вооружённых Сил.” We really don’t want to say “Construction and Development” or “Building and Development” or something like that. We’re not talking a suburban Moscow water park here. By the same token, “Organizational Development and Development” sounds dumb.
What we’re really talking here is force structure planning and force development. The emergence of this planning document isn’t surprising given that they got a new national security concept in 2009, and a new military doctrine in early 2010. This article also makes the point that, besides this ten-year military organizational development plan, there are also five- and one-year plans.
We’re going to move quickly today. So pay attention.
The priorities are: strategic deterrence (SYaS and VKO); building inter-service groupings on strategic axes (as in OSKs); building a new command and control system; reequipping in line with GPV-2020; a new education and training system for officers and sergeants; and resolving ever-present issues of social defense [i.e. pay and benefits] of servicemen.
What does it mean for each service?
- For the Ground Troops, get organized on the axes and prepare to be mobile.
- For the Air Forces, emphasize supporting the Ground Troops and Navy. Improve VTA and airfields for strategic mobility.
- For Navy, support personnel and combat readiness of naval SYaS. Series construction of multipurpose nuclear submarines and surface ships.
- For RVSN, preserve the structure of ground SYaS. Complete rearmament with fifth generation missiles.
- For Space Troops, deploy formations with future missile attack warning and space monitoring systems. Complete the full orbital grouping with future satellite systems.
- For VDV, improve training, especially inter-service training. Reequip with armaments, military equipment, and specialized equipment.
Sounds like Ground Troops have to make do with the weapons and equipment they have.
Stay tuned for Part II.
Russian Defense Policy 