Does the manning system of the Russian Armed Forces meet modern requirements?
The extremely difficult tasks facing the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation today have sharply raised the bar for people in uniform to match them. New forms and methods of military operations, modern weapons and military equipment, informatization and the introduction of innovative technologies into the sphere of armed struggle demanded a serious increase in the level of professional training of officers and soldiers. This, in turn, made it necessary to look differently at the manning system of the RF Armed Forces.
Historical experience bears witness to this paradox. Any developed state needs an army that would be fundamentally different from what it has now: much better trained and technically equipped, with a high morale, ensuring a decent material level and social status of servicemen. That is, the army of tomorrow. It is not surprising that the improvement of the system of its manning is today one of the highest priorities in the activities of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces.
Alternative to conscription
It must be admitted that after the creation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in 1992, the Soviet manning system, with its inherent mandatory military service for all male citizens, continued to operate for a long time.
It is generally accepted that the starting point of the transition to a mixed method of manning the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (by conscription and contract) was the signing by the President of the Russian Federation of a decree "On the recruitment in 1994 for military service under a contract in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation." According to him, about 150 thousand professionals were selected for military positions that determine the combat ability of units.
The effectiveness of this method of manning has been confirmed by the practice of building up the Armed Forces. Therefore, in 1998, the federal law "On Military Duty and Military Service" a mixed method of recruitment, in accordance with which our citizens can do military service not only by conscription, but also voluntarily (by contract), is established at the legislative level and is maintained under present time.
In the difficult modern demographic and economic conditions, taking into account the need to have an optimally sufficient trained mobilization resource, the chosen mixed method of recruiting is now the most acceptable for our state.
It is also used abroad - in Austria, Finland, Norway, Turkey, Greece and other countries. In the United States, despite the formal preservation of the voluntary principle of manning, citizens serving in the reserve can also be called up (without their consent) for military service for a period of one to two years or more. In Germany, since July 2011, on the basis of a parliamentary decree, recruitment has been carried out on a voluntary basis, but the provision on universal conscription is still enshrined in the country's constitution.
Photo: RIA Novosti
The transition of the Russian Federation to contract military service required purposeful and painstaking work to develop the system of manning the troops, improve its regulatory framework, the system of professional training, and create attractive conditions and social security for servicemen and their families. Much has been done for this today, but even more remains to be done. Moreover, not only the establishment of a decent pay and a sufficiently flexible system of bonuses for class qualifications, physical fitness and the specifics of the performance of official duties, but also the solution of issues related to providing servicemen with service housing and medical care.
Currently, the staffing of the Armed Forces with officers and warrant officers is carried out only on a voluntary basis. They are trained by higher military educational institutions, military training centers at civilian universities. Officers from the reserve also enter military service.
In turn, the recruitment of privates and non-commissioned officers is carried out in a mixed way, combining conscription military service and voluntary service (under contract). At the same time, up to 90 percent of all candidates for contract service are citizens who are in the reserve and have experience in serving on conscription. Many trained soldiers and sergeants, after completing their military service, also express a desire to continue it under the contract, primarily in the Airborne Forces and the Navy.
Today the system of selection of candidates for entering military service under the contract has been tested and well debugged. Selection points operate in almost every constituent entity of the Russian Federation, the number of which has increased from 66 (in 2012) to 81 (in 2015).
In 2012, a new type of training for candidates entering military service from the reserve was introduced - intensive combined-arms training with a course of "survival". This not only allows a civilian to restore his skills in a military specialty, but also serves as a kind of filter against the entry of "random people" into the army.
The arrival of modern weapons and military equipment in the troops also made increased demands on contract soldiers, which in turn required a serious adjustment of their training and retraining programs in new specialties. The scale of training specialists in the secondary military-special program at the universities of the Russian Ministry of Defense has increased. In them, along with the military profession, young people also receive secondary vocational education.
For an adequate response to possible threats to the country's national security in the changing military-political situation, presidential decree of 2012 No. 604 "On further improvement of military service in the Russian Federation" fixed an annual, for five years, increase in the number of contract servicemen by at least 50 thousand. The gradual increase in numbers is synchronized with the re-equipment of the Armed Forces with the latest high-tech weapons and military equipment, for the operation and maintenance of which only highly qualified specialists are needed. Naturally, the number of conscripts is proportionally reduced. In 2015, the Armed Forces for the first time reached a historical maximum - the number of contract soldiers in military positions of warrant officers, sergeants and soldiers reached 300 thousand and exceeded the number of conscripts.
But we are not chasing quantitative indicators. Particular attention is paid primarily to the quality of the selection of candidates. As a rule, these are citizens under the age of 30, who have a higher or secondary education, who, according to the results of professional psychological selection, received the first or second group of professional aptitude. The selection and effectiveness of their placement in military positions, taking into account the level of professional education, military registration and civilian specialties, is achieved by automating these processes. In particular, the introduction of hardware and software systems, innovative development of software tools and testing methods.
Drug addicts are not allowed
A special area of work is to ensure the quality of the conscript contingent. As you know, the duration of conscription service has now been reduced to one year. The terms of the spring conscription campaign have been legally extended until July 15, which makes it possible to call for military service citizens who graduated from higher and secondary vocational education institutions this year. The level of training of university graduates allows them to be appointed to military positions in a related military accounting specialty without additional training. Over the past five years, the proportion of conscripts with higher education in the army has increased from five to nineteen percent.
Taking into account the reduction in the terms of military service and the improvement of the conditions for its passage, the requirements for the state of health of certain categories of citizens of the Russian Federation have been revised. During the medical examination, modern high-tech diagnostic equipment is used, which makes it possible to detect existing diseases at an early stage, and also excludes the sending of citizens who are unfit for military service and who have drug addiction to the troops.
In-depth and purposeful work with public organizations, the media, educational institutions, and parents of conscripts helped to relieve the previously existing tension in the activities of draft commissions. The number of so-called draft deviators is declining annually by three to five percent. And the results of the conscription campaigns of the last five years indicate that the current selection system is quite efficiently coping with the task of improving the quality of staffing of military posts.
It is clear that in the foreseeable future the mixed method of manning the Armed Forces will remain. At the same time, conscripts will be appointed only to positions that do not require in-depth training, special knowledge and skills. In the future, this will ensure the accumulation of military-trained mobilization manpower resources in the required volumes. Still, a number of problems remain.
In particular, under the influence of social, economic, demographic and other factors, the situation with the preparation of mobilization reserves has changed significantly. A citizen who is in reserve, it is becoming extremely difficult to call for military training today. Employers of commercial structures are reluctant to let their employees go, as a rule, without keeping the average earnings, or raise the question of their dismissal.
What to hide, there is also the evasion of individual citizens who are in the reserve from participating in military assembly training. You can partly understand them. Fear of losing a job, reducing family income, disrupting the usual way of life prompts you to go to various tricks. It turns out that citizens are not sufficiently motivated to improve their level of professional military training and attend military training sessions, and the leaders of organizations of all forms of ownership are not interested in resolving these issues.
These facts have been repeatedly confirmed by the events we are conducting with the conscription of citizens from the reserve. Each of them must remember and know: in accordance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the defense of the Fatherland is his duty and obligation, and the passage of military training is aimed at ensuring the defense and security of the state.
It is gratifying that today there is a general growth of patriotic sentiments in society, but this is not a reason for complacency. Together with the authorities at all levels, it is necessary to achieve such an understanding of the unity of the army and the people, when citizens will in fact consider the fulfillment of military service duties not a heavy burden, but an honorable duty and a sacred duty. What is being done for this?
Based on historical experience, the General Staff is currently working to improve the system for preparing and accumulating mobilization resources by creating a reserve component to ensure the guaranteed replenishment of the Armed Forces on time with militarily trained mobilization manpower resources. This is necessary both during the period of mobilization and to resolve possible crisis situations of a natural and man-made nature.
What the experiment will show
The new system for the training and accumulation of mobilization manpower resources should ensure the mobilization requirements of troops (forces), sufficient volumes of accumulation of a military-trained reserve, and the maintenance of training at the proper level. It will create such conditions when citizens who are in reserve will voluntarily strive to improve their military knowledge, skills and abilities, and will be guaranteed to fulfill their military duty during the period of conscription upon notification, attendance and military service in military units.
Someone, having read these optimistic lines, may smile. Yes, there are different people with different levels of responsibility and understanding of their civic duty. But, firstly, the road will be mastered by the walking one. Secondly, in the near future a new system of citizens' stay in the reserve will start working. Its essence is that from now on, a mobilization manpower reserve will be formed as part of the reserve of the Armed Forces. To this end, a contract on being in reserve will be signed on a voluntary basis with the reserve personnel intended for staffing formations and military units (reservists). The rest of the citizens assigned to military units belong to the mobilization human resource.
The ratio of reservists and mobilization manpower is established on the basis of the number of military positions that determine combat effectiveness, the purpose of deployed military units and the economic capabilities of the state.
The creation and development of the new system will be carried out in a planned manner in conjunction with the plans for the development of the Armed Forces. An important stage in its formation was Federal Law No. 288-FZ "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation on the Creation of a Human Mobilization Reserve", which entered into force on January 1, 2013. It defines the relevant legal and organizational framework.
As part of the implementation of the law, the Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation dated September 3, 2015 No. 933 approved the "Regulations on the procedure for the stay of citizens of the Russian Federation in the mobilization manpower reserve." It determines the order of their admission to the mobilization manpower reserve in peacetime, stay in it and exclusion from it, as well as the conclusion of a contract and its termination.
At the government level, work is being completed to determine the sources of funding and ensure the procedure for cash payments to the specified category of citizens during the period of their call for military training.
In 2015, the President of the Russian Federation signed a decree “On the creation of a mobilization human reserve of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”, which provides for an experiment to introduce a new system of training and accumulation of mobilization human resources. In 2015-2016, with the adoption of all the necessary regulatory legal acts, we will test it. Based on the results of the work, it is planned to carry out a practical transition to the new system and the development of its infrastructure.
The creation of a national reserve in the Russian Federation will make it possible to form formations and military units with minimum terms of readiness for combat use, staffed with professional specialists. The training of reservists will be ensured through regular military training for up to 30 days, their involvement in mobilization and tactical exercises as part of the units in which they are assigned in accordance with the contract.
Obligations, as well as rights, as well as the conditions of stay in the reserve, we repeat, are regulated by the contract. When reservists fulfill their respective duties, an effective system of incentive and compensation payments is envisaged. Thus, the consistent implementation of measures for the preparation and accumulation of the required volumes of military-trained human resources will help to increase the mobilization readiness of troops (forces).
Summing up, it must be said that the system of manning the Armed Forces we have chosen, including mobilization manpower resources, today is optimal, justified by the realities of the time and assigned tasks, and ensures the maintenance of the required level of combat readiness of troops (forces).
