General Staff Chief Nikolay Makarov apparently held a lengthy press-conference today covering many topics. He’s still advocating buying weapons abroad (when necessary), despite Prime Minister Putin’s strong support of the domestic OPK against the military’s demands.
ITAR-TASS quotes Makarov on the pending Navy headquarters move to Piter:
“Concerning a decision by the Supreme CINC [President Medvedev] to revoke the transfer of the Navy Main Staff to St. Petersburg, there has been no such decision. We are now working on this issue.”
The General Staff Chief seemed to say there won’t be any diminution of the role or place occupied by service Glavkomaty, according to the news service. He said the Main Commands of the services of the Armed Forces are part of the military branch of command and control which he heads.
ITAR-TASS quotes Makarov on buying arms and equipment abroad:
“We will need to buy something that isn’t produced with the quality we require.”
He compared domestic Msta-S and longer-range French Caesar howitzers:
“In France, we were shown the work of an artillery battalion which was ready to fire 30 seconds after a march. Our analogous norm is 15 minutes. The difference between one minute and 15 minutes is huge.”
“Therefore, we have to acquire something in order not to lag behind, but on the condition of arranging joint production in Russia.”
Interfaks quoted him on buying armor abroad:
“Some technologies certainly have to be bought in the West.”
The Defense Ministry, he says, has no desire to buy arms and equipment abroad if Russia has analogs or more modern models. But Russia will find it hard to compete with Western firms that are cooperating with each other. Makarov cited Renault’s APC which uses a Volvo engine. “Our producers need to make a revolutionary leap,” Makarov concluded.
The General Staff Chief was ambivalent about the T-90 tank, according to ITAR-TASS:
“I visited the Nizhniy Tagil exhibition and got familiar with our T-90 tank. The tank they showed us, particularly its turret, calls for serious respect. But we have questions remaining about many drawbacks.”
“. . . the experimental-design work the factory is conducting will allow them to realize those requirements the Russian military is placing on this new product.”
ITAR-TASS also picked up Makarov’s remarks on the Tsentr-2011 exercises:
“We want to work out common approaches to employing armed forces within the ODKB [CSTO] framework.”
“Besides militaries, all other power structures, which are understood as part of the state’s military organization, in the ODKB countries will participate in these exercises. As far as Russia goes, we want to check the country’s military organization fully by conducting a series of mobilization measures, including also industry.”
“Starting today, we’ve started into mobilization deployment of a number of formations and units according to independent plans.”
Russian Defense Policy 