Last Friday, the Ministry of Defense once again held a Single Day for the Acceptance of Military Products. During this event, the military department summed up the procurement of weapons, military equipment and other materiel in the third quarter of 2014. The single day of acceptance of military products is held for the second time. According to the military, the Single Acceptance Day performs two main functions: it serves to update weapons and equipment, and also provides public coverage of the current rearmament.
The implementation of the State Defense Order in the third quarter of 2014 is proceeding in accordance with existing plans, although there are some delays. Despite all the difficulties, the Russian defense industry in the period under review transferred to the military 30% more products than in the third quarter of 2013. Defense Minister General of the Army Sergei Shoigu noted the importance of re-equipping the armed forces in accordance with the existing schedule. In connection with the latest events in the international arena, the Ministry of Defense, together with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and other departments, are planning and carrying out various activities aimed at phasing out imported materials and components. According to the Minister of Defense, the measures taken should lead to the abandonment of Ukrainian and European components and thereby maintain the existing rates of rearmament.
The most numerically active work on the construction of new and repair of existing equipment affects the materiel of the ground forces. The commander-in-chief of the ground forces, Colonel-General Oleg Salyukov, said that in 2014 the army should receive 4,499 units of new and repaired equipment. To date, 31% of the planned work has been completed. The remaining three and a half thousand vehicles will be transferred to the troops by the end of the year.
Within the framework of a single day of acceptance of military products, a batch of Msta-S self-propelled artillery mounts was handed over via videoconference. Representatives of the Ministry of Defense carried out the acceptance of 15 modernized vehicles of the 2S19M2 modification, completing the contract for the supply of 108 ACS of this type. The order for the supply of self-propelled guns was completed ahead of schedule. The equipment accepted by the military is ready to be dispatched to the unit. In total, this year the troops received 36 Msta-S self-propelled guns.
Since the beginning of the year, the ground forces have received 66 armored personnel carriers, 726 vehicles, about 1,300 communications and reconnaissance equipment, as well as brigade and divisional kits of the new Verba portable anti-aircraft missile system. The number of supplied ammunition of various types exceeds 730 thousand. In the interests of the ground forces, 183 armored vehicles and 2,146 vehicles were repaired.
Colonel-General Viktor Bondarev, the commander-in-chief of this service, spoke about the pace of rearmament of the air force in the third quarter of this year. Over the past months, the Air Force received 12 new aircraft and 36 helicopters. Ground equipment was replenished with 8 airfield radar stations and 1 medium and high-altitude radar "Volga". In addition, the military aviation received over 12 thousand weapons. 28 aircraft and 6 helicopters of several types were repaired. For example, the Ulyanovsk plant "Aviastar-SP" has carried out the repair and modernization of one of the existing military transport aircraft An-124. In the interests of the Air Force, some work is being carried out within the framework of the import substitution program. The planned measures have already been taken to replace Ukrainian components in the production of AI-222 turbojet engines used on Yak-130 aircraft.
The airborne troops have not yet received new equipment, but the existing materiel is being repaired and modernized. In recent months, the Airborne Forces received 47 armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles that have undergone repairs. In addition, more than 7,700 different landing equipment have been delivered.
The aerospace defense forces have begun operating a new regimental set of the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system. At the end of September, tests of the Voronezh-DM radar station were completed in the Irkutsk region. The military representation at the TsSKB-Progress rocket and space center has completed the acceptance of the Soyuz-2 launch vehicle, which is to launch the Cobalt spacecraft into orbit in the near future.
The commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, Colonel-General Sergei Karakaev, announced the acceptance into operation of nine mobile launchers of the Yars complex, as well as six missiles. Two silo launchers of the Yars complex and a unified command post were built and put into operation. By the end of the year, the Strategic Missile Forces should receive eight Yars missiles, three mobile launchers and five mobile command posts.
The construction of ships and vessels for the navy continues. Recently, the Navy has received 3 warships, as well as 9 auxiliary vessels and berths. In addition, 8 new radars were transferred to the fleet. Among the ships and vessels put into operation there are representatives of new projects. So, at the end of July, the Andreevsky flag was raised on the Stoyky corvette of project 20380, built at the Severnaya Verf plant. The tests have been completed and the operation of the sea tug of project 02790 has begun. The St. Petersburg shipyard "Admiralty Shipyards" continues the construction of submarines of project 636, and representatives of the Ministry of Defense are monitoring the ongoing construction.
Unfortunately, not all rearmament plans are being implemented in full accordance with the schedule. During the Single Day of Acceptance of Military Products, the head of the department of military missions, Colonel Oleg Stepanov, named enterprises that have debts to the military department. Thus, the Zvezda plant has not yet completed the repair of two submarines, the Aviakor aircraft plant is delaying the transfer of eight aircraft to the Air Force and the Navy, and the Dubna Machine-Building Plant has not fully fulfilled the order for the supply of aircraft weapons. The concern of the military is caused by the work of the NPP "KLASS", which has not yet handed over to the Ministry of Defense more than 4,500 bulletproof vests. The Yantar shipyard is seriously behind the construction schedule of two Project 1135.6 patrol ships. The All-Russian Research Institute of Radio Equipment is pulling the delivery of 6 Igla-S ground sighting stations.
The Ministry of Defense, which did not receive the ordered equipment on time, is forced to apply penalties to debtor enterprises. Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov noted that penalties for non-fulfillment of contractual obligations can reach tens or even hundreds of millions of rubles. This gives the industry an additional incentive to deal with problems that interfere with normal operations and to fulfill contracts on time.
The single day of acceptance of military products, held on October 10, is not the first such event, nor will it be the last. Such days will be held every few months, which will allow the military department to draw more attention to the problem of rearmament of the army. The emergence of uniform acceptance days was to a certain extent facilitated by the current State Armaments Program, during which it is planned to provide the armed forces with a large amount of new materiel. By the end of the decade, about 20 trillion rubles will be spent on these needs.
In accordance with current plans, next year there will be another increase in the defense budget. According to available data, in 2015 the Ministry of Defense will receive 3.287 trillion rubles, which is 4.2% of the country's GDP. For comparison, the defense budget for 2014 amounted to 2.417 trillion rubles, i.e. about a third less than planned for the next. The projected defense budget for 2015 is a record for the past decades, both in absolute and relative terms. Such defense spending has not been envisaged since the days of the Soviet Union. In the future, it is planned to keep the military budget at the level of 3-3, 2 trillion rubles a year and, with such expenses, to complete the State Armaments Program.
