Changes in the troops are not limited to organizational staff events
The process of giving a new look to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is associated not only with changes in the staff structure and the transition of the Russian army from a regimental organization to a brigade organization, but also with updating the legislative, regulatory and legal framework, orders and directives that determine the daily activities of military units and subunits. What changes have taken place? What are the new techniques and guidelines for? The editorial board of "VPK" asked the head of the Main Directorate of Combat Training and Service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to tell about this.
As is known, profound structural transformations have taken place in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation recently. The transition to a one-year service life has been made. Taking into account the changes in the nature of armed struggle, a promising system of forms and methods of employment of the RF Armed Forces for the period 2011-2020 is being actively introduced into the practice of troops (forces). A more efficient three-tier management system is being created. Intensive work has been launched to re-equip formations and military units with new types of weapons and military equipment.
WHO WILL RISE TOMORROW?
But all this is just the tip of the iceberg. The changes will inevitably entail serious transformations at all levels of the army, including the organization of personnel training, since one of the main tasks of reforming the Armed Forces is to steadily improve the quality of combat training. Today this process is planned to be carried out in close cooperation with other power structures and relying on the advanced experience of the armed forces of other states.
However, to accomplish this task, it is required to perform a whole range of measures. For example, to revise approaches to training citizens of the Russian Federation for military service and revise guidelines. And also to introduce new training methods into the troops and improve the command training systems for officers and sergeants. And yet, in the conditions of the transition to military service by conscription for 12 months, it seems that the preliminary (pre-conscription) training of young people comes to the fore.
At present, at the educational institutions of the DOSAAF, citizens of draft age are trained in more than 40 military specialties. The volumes increased in comparison with 2007 more than two times - more than 160 thousand people a year. But the quality, unfortunately, until recently remained extremely low. Thus, MTLB and BTR specialists trained in DOSAAF did not have a sufficient level of professional training and required additional training directly in military units when they were appointed to a position. The interest of young people themselves is also lacking.
In order for the system to work effectively, it is necessary to clarify the lists of specialties for which DOSAAF, taking into account the available training and material base, is guaranteed to be able to train specialists who are able to start performing their official duties in the troops without additional training.
In order to increase the interest of young people in the development of military registration specialties that do not have a civilian orientation, the issue of their acquisition of a second (civil) specialty is also being worked out. Much attention is paid to living conditions. And for training in specialties related to the maintenance of complex radio-electronic equipment, there is an address call for citizens with a specialty related to military accounting (radio engineering, instrument-making, etc.), sending them to training in military units.
APPROBATION OF NEWS
But pre-conscription training is only one side of the coin. Today it is already clear: without a new ideology of training troops and the purposeful introduction of new methods into the training process, any changes and transformations are impossible.
Last year and over the past period of this year, the Armed Forces revised more than 60 fundamental guiding (charter) documents. Let's name just a few.
First of all, new combat training programs have been created and implemented, which define both general and specific areas of joint training. As a result, the stages of coordination are uniform for all troops, at which joint forms and methods of training are worked out (group exercises and tactical briefings, command-staff and tactical exercises, conferences, etc.), which make it possible to prepare subunits and formations for action by the set deadline. in various conditions of a combat situation. These programs are quite flexible and give commanders ample opportunities in working with subordinates, depending on their level of training.
There was also a new Manual on Combat Training in the Armed Forces for the tactical level of command. It systematizes approaches to the organization of training, specifies the responsibilities of officials of formations (military units) for the leadership and provision of combat training, taking into account modern requirements. It reveals in more detail the role of non-commissioned officers in the training of soldiers (sailors), taking into account the increase in their importance in the reformed army, the peculiarities of organizing and conducting exercises far from places of permanent deployment and international exercises, as well as issues of comprehensive support for training.
Today, the finalization of the Manual on mountain training in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the draft of new general military regulations is nearing completion.
With the transition of the Armed Forces to a new look, a stable practice of cooperation with sports federations has developed. This is most clearly expressed in the training of mountain units with the involvement of the Russian Mountaineering Federation and in teaching effective shooting from small arms with the involvement of representatives of the Practical Shooting Federation.
On the basis of the methods of teaching high-speed shooting of the all-Russian sports public organization "Federation of Practical Shooting", as well as the positive experience accumulated in matters of fire training by the special forces of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB of Russia, a methodology for teaching practical shooting has been developed, which makes it possible to train servicemen in a short time conducting close fire combat in mountainous and wooded terrain, urban development and limited visibility.
A new model and organization of physical training has been developed, a distinctive feature of which is the applied orientation and development of mass sports. The new guidelines take into account the peculiarities of training servicemen in a particular specialty. A course is set for the maximum intensification of classes and the frequency of their conduct. Physical education classes in the military unit are now held for 4-5 hours a day. In the daily routine, there is also a time for relaxation in the afternoon. A new sports uniform has appeared, sections have started working. Each soldier now has the opportunity to additionally engage in the chosen sport. It is hoped that in the near future the implementation of the adopted model will make it possible to raise the level of physical fitness in the troops and to strengthen the health of servicemen. And the main thing is to solve the main task: to increase the combat effectiveness of the Armed Forces.
Taking into account the experience of 2009 and the tasks that were set in the 2010 academic year, we also approached the planning of combat training activities in a new way: more attention is paid to the conditions of the situation, the state of subunits and formations, the nature of the training and combat tasks being solved. The specific dates for the main events are determined by the commanders of the military districts (fleets). This approach ensures high-quality training of the personnel of the formation (military unit) in specific terms.
In the 2009 academic year, some of these innovations have already been tested. So, at operational-strategic exercises, the fulfillment of tasks in unfamiliar terrain became a prerequisite. This allowed the troops to act according to a single plan, to abandon the flow of costly tactical exercises at repeatedly run-in training grounds. And for commanders who did not take part in large-scale events, organize demonstrative tactical exercises (in the Ground Forces - brigade, in the Airborne Forces - regimental, in the coastal forces of the Navy - battalion). Battalion tactical exercises with a march up to 200 km were also held in the military districts.
The main emphasis is placed on the coordination of divisions. For example, battalions began to train as self-sufficient tactical units. All this made it possible to maintain the combat readiness of troops (forces) at a level that ensures guaranteed performance of tasks in the context of the transition to new organizational and staff structures and a system of basing troops (forces). And also save money.
MAIN LINK - SERGEANTS
Naturally, the tasks set by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the President of the Russian Federation, to create compact, mobile Armed Forces require the training of officers of a new formation. Leaders who think outside the box should be able to make extraordinary decisions and teach their subordinates to act unconventionally, with high mobility. In the future, these are highly intelligent professionals who confidently own modern high-tech weapons of warfare: defeat, reconnaissance, navigation and control. In this regard, during the 2010 academic year, the approaches to the organization of command training will be revised. It will be held not only in units, but also at training camps in the universities of the Ministry of Defense, during practical demonstration, instructor-methodological and control classes, training camps in the specialty, field training competitions, tactical and operational-strategic exercises.
At this stage, the proposed approach allows for the centralized training of commanders of all levels and their deputies. The activities are united by a single concept and are aimed at improving skills and abilities in the joint performance of combat missions. They exclude the separation of unit commanders from the personnel.
In connection with the abolition of the category of warrant officers and warrant officers, the link of junior commanders comes to the fore in the issue of training subunits. Previously, they were selected from among the conscripts. It was possible to get a more or less trained sergeant only at the end of the service. And his functions had to be taken over by junior officers (platoon and company commanders and even battalion-level officers), while training both the soldiers and the sergeants themselves.
Today, the Armed Forces have begun to create effective systems for the selection and training of junior commanders that meet modern requirements, which could guarantee the functioning of a qualitatively new institution of professional sergeants (foremen) capable of training and educating soldiers, being an example and role model for them. The main thing is the training of sergeants who, according to their professional level, will be able to replace an officer in the performance of combat and combat training missions.
To this end, painstaking work is being carried out to increase the attractiveness of the sergeant service, which should become competitive in the current labor market. For this, for example, on the basis of three military schools - airborne, communications and automobile in Ryazan, a training center for sergeants has been formed. In addition, in a number of universities, secondary vocational education departments have been created to train sergeants. And the existing schools of warrant officers will be transformed into schools for sergeants. In the district and interregional training centers, which are currently training junior specialists for the Armed Forces, cycles are also being created to train sergeants from among conscripts for the positions of commanders of squads (crews, crews). The creation of refresher courses is envisaged. And so it will be until the full staffing of non-commissioned officers with contract servicemen.
The development of the Armed Forces at the stage of their transition to a new look, the change in the requirements for the organization and level of training of troops (forces) required the systematization of the training and material base. Indeed, in the future, it should be serviced and operated by the forces of third-party organizations, thereby relieving servicemen from performing a number of functions unusual for them.
The Russian Ministry of Defense, within the framework of the State Armament Program for 2011-2020, has developed a draft comprehensive target program "Development of technical training aids for training troops (forces), ensuring the educational process in higher educational institutions until 2020". Its implementation will make it possible to solve almost all the tasks of training a specialist and the department as a whole with a significant reduction in costs. And also to carry out training of tactical echelon command and control bodies by simulating the theater of operations, the actions of its subunits and the enemy.
Thus, with the structural changes in the Armed Forces, the approaches to organizing combat training and the very system of its support are changing. One thing is invariable - combat training remains the main content of the daily activities of servicemen.
