Tolya’s remarks to the press today made quite a few headlines, and left a few useful benchmarks for the future. Defense Minister Serdyukov addressed procurement and manpower issues. Here are his quotes from RIA Novosti and ITAR-TASS.
Tanks for Nothin’
“We met the designers who proposed their preliminary work to us. 60 percent of what was proposed is old work. Therefore, we still declined these proposals.”
“Now it’s more expedient to modernize our country’s tank inventory than to buy new ones, for example the T-90.”
Cold Water on Carriers
“We have no plans to build aircraft carriers.”
“Only after this [a preliminary design of what this ship might look like], the Genshtab together with the Navy will make a decision on the need for such a ship.”
SSBNs Aren’t Automobiles
“‘Bulava’ flew, this is good news. We understand precisely that it’s possible to launch serial production of the missile on this variant.”
“We got the result, now it’s possible to load SSBN ‘Yuriy Dolgorukiy’ with ‘Bulava.'”
“We’d like to do this [test Bulava from Aleksandr Nevskiy], but we understand that to plan this precisely is impossible. A nuclear submarine isn’t an automobile.”
Bullish on Arms Deliveries
“Deliveries of strategic missiles ‘Topol-M,’ ‘Yars,’ ‘Avangard’ will increase three times, ‘Bulava’ and ‘Sineva’ missiles for strategic submarines one and a half times, aircraft four times, helicopters almost five times, air defense systems almost two and a half times [in 2011-2015 compared with 2006-2010].”
Not Going Below a Million Men
“There are no such plans, there are no questions of cutting manpower. We’re striving for the entire army under the million number, and it isn’t planned to cut this figure.”
“On account of this [increasing contractees from 2014], we’ll manage without fail to get through the demographic hole which is anticipated in 2014.”
Two Arctic Brigades
“The Genshtab is now developing plans to establish two of these formations. In the plans, deployment places, armaments, manning, and the infrastructure of these brigades need to be specified.”
“It’s possible this will be Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, or another place.”
Russian Defense Policy 