Some Russian defense news from August 6, 2012 (and a bit earlier too) . . .
Militaryparitet.com picked up the VVS CINC in Interfax.ru talking about the Su-35 flight test program, and serial production beginning in 2014, or even next year. PAK FA, he said, will be produced from, or after the start of, 2015.
Preliminaries for Rubezh-2012 (photo: Mil.ru)
Mil.ru and KZ published on the beginning of Rubezh-2012 — the ODKB’s Collective Rapid Deployment Force exercise at Chebarkul. Vladimir Mukhin, however, writes in today’s NG about “fault lines” in collective defense. He contrasts the alliance’s exercise activity with its inaction against real Central Asian instability.
Coastal rocket and artillery units have been busy. Mil.ru showed the DP-62 Damba MLRS firing from the beach on Kamchatka, and TsAMTO covered a Western MD press-release about Northern Fleet launches of Rubezh and Redut coastal antiship missiles.
KZ today issued its take on the Navy CINC’s comments during Ekho Moskvy’s Voyennyy sovet program last week. It’s always interesting to compare the KZ summary with Ekho’s transcript.
Mil.ru reports the well-nigh forgotten future professional sergeants in training at Ryazan will graduate in November. It says 130 will head off for new assignments.
Recall this grew out of the failed 2003-2007 contract service program, and utilized space available due to the drastic reduction in officer training. Izvestiya provided a late 2010 look into how few men showed up and lasted at Ryazan. In early 2011, the Defense Ministry slashed the funding and largely euthanized the stillborn effort. One waits to see how it’ll find 425,000 contractees in the future.
Russian Defense Policy 