The amount of money that has been allocated in the world for security over the past ten years has increased by 45 percent. America continues to lead in terms of its defense budget. And the defense expenditures of the Russian Federation in this area are 2 times higher than those of Iran, Turkey and India.
But in the purchase of new types of weapons and equipment, the volume of funds spent is 2 times less, which indicates its incorrect financial management (now the Russian Federation accounts for only 1 percent of world production of various products, while more than 30 percent of world resources are concentrated on its territory).
According to experts, 30-60 percent of the Russian state military budget is embezzled. The result of the comparison of military concepts and doctrines of Russia and the United States also attracts interest. For example: in accordance with the new offensive concept of the United States, it is envisaged to deliver 80,000 cruise missile strikes against military and administrative centers of the enemy (with a density of 1,000 missiles per day). In addition, priority was given to the conduct of hostilities in conditions of local conflicts. The new US nuclear doctrine provides for a reduction in the number of warheads to 1,550 units, as well as the re-targeting of missiles from large settlements of a potential enemy (Russia) to strategically important economically objects - Rosneft, Gazprom, Rusala, Norilsk Nickel, Evraz, Surgutneftgaz, Severstal, Italian Enel and German T. ON.
With regard to Russia, the NATO factor should also be taken into account. The time it takes for the alliance's strategic aviation to cover the distance from the Estonian border to the center of St. Petersburg is only 4 minutes, and it will take about 18 minutes to reach Moscow. NATO forces can use 245 brigades and 24 divisions (25,000 armored vehicles, several thousand aircraft, 13,000 tanks). It should be borne in mind that the division of the alliance in terms of combat effectiveness is 3 times higher than the divisions of the Russian army, which are mostly equipped with equipment and weapons of the 80s.
According to available data, the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces has not developed plans for the transition of the armed forces and the country to martial law from peacetime. The main operational directorate of the General Staff was reduced by 51 percent (297 of the 584 employees of the directorate remained). A similar reduction rate can be seen in other main directorates of the General Staff. Based on the current situation, it will be impossible to train an appropriate officer in the next 10 years. The training of such a specialist is possible only after a 15-year period.
In 2009, the expenses of the Russian Defense Ministry amounted to more than 1 trillion Russian rubles. This is approximately the 7th part of the federal budget of the state. The Accounts Chamber estimates that 20 percent of this amount is non-earmarked expenditures. So, in particular, the main tasks have not been achieved - the suppression of aggression on a regional and local scale, the containment of military-political dangers, an effective fight against terrorism, etc. The Russian Armed Forces will be 1,884,829 people, of which 1 million are servicemen (about 200,000 servicemen will be cut). But, according to the decision taken after the decision, the process of reducing the army should be completed by 2012.
We can assume that the main feature of the reform is the transition from a 4-stage (military district - army - division - regiment) command and control system to a 3-stage (military district - army - brigade). Thanks to this transition, the officer staff will be reduced from 355 thousand to 150 thousand people. It should also be noted that these states are currently staffed by only 30 percent. In the recent past, there were 1107 generals, and after the reform, their number will be reduced to 866 people. It is planned to reduce the colonels from 25,665 to 9,114 people. Also, as part of the reform of the armed forces, it is planned to create 12 motorized rifle brigades, seven army air defense brigades and 12 communications brigades. Of the currently existing 1,890 military units, only 172 units and formations will remain.
The state of the Russian Armed Forces
- Strategic nuclear forces
As of today, the share of strategic nuclear forces in state military orders is 25 percent. As of 2009, the Russian Federation had nearly 4,000 warheads delivered by 814 strategic delivery vehicles. For the same period, the United States had over 5,500 warheads, which are delivered by 1,198 carriers. The Russian Air Force is armed with 13 TU-160 strategic bombers and 63 units of the TU-95MS bomber.
Simultaneously with an increase in the accuracy of US ICBMs and an increase in the ability to destroy Russian silo launchers, the Topol mobile strategic complex was developed. But it should be borne in mind that in a situation where America has radar, optical and infrared reconnaissance satellites, the Topol's invulnerability tends to zero. The bases of the complex are known to the Americans with high accuracy, and its movement will be completely controlled from the moment the vehicles leave the hangar. This greatly increases the likelihood of destroying the Topol. In this perspective, the enhanced protection of the protection of the structures of the silo launchers and their underground location is seen as reliable, although most of these silos have already been practically destroyed.
Considering the issue of launching ballistic missiles from submarines, 7 out of 12 tests conducted ended in failure. In addition, in 2010, the Strategic Missile Forces carried out only 3 of the 14 planned missile launches. In December 2009, the laying of a new strategic submarine "St. Nicholas" was planned, but it was also postponed. This cruiser was supposed to carry the new Bulava ballistic missile.
There are also problems in the production of ballistic missiles and carriers for them. So, in 2000-2007, only 27 missiles were created (and this is three times less than the indicators of the 90s) and 1 strategic bomber Tu-160, which is seven times less than was produced in the 90s of the last century.
Air Force
In the Russian Air Force, the number of fighter aircraft has sharply decreased. In addition, most of the aircraft are outdated and their service life has expired. The number of fighters of all types is approximately 650 aircraft. Of these, 55 percent are over 15 years old, and 40 percent of the aircraft are between five and ten years old. The release of new fighters has actually been suspended. The Russian aircraft fleet was replenished with rejected and low-quality MiG-29 SMT aircraft returned by Algeria.
According to the Russian defense department, currently about 200 MiG-29 units cannot take off into the air, and this practically makes up a third of the entire aircraft fleet of fighters. According to current estimates, only MiG-31 fighters will be able to conduct modern combat. Also, the process of the so-called "deep" modernization of the existing aircraft is being dragged out. In fact, within one year, it turns out to modernize one strategic bomber of the Tu-160 type and 15-17 aircraft of the Su-27 type.
The duration of the flying hours of Russian pilots is also poor. At present, it averages 10-30 hours per year, while international flight safety requirements stipulate its duration of at least 60 hours per year. Also, according to representatives of the Russian defense department, during the August 2008 conflict with Georgia, the obsolescence of electronic warfare and equipment was clearly manifested.
Since 1994, it has not been possible to equip the country's air defense forces with new equipment. Over the past 16 years, the Russian military has not received a single anti-aircraft missile system of the S-300 type, and the systems in service were produced in the 70s and 80s of the last century and by 2015 will fully exhaust their capabilities. But air defense systems will not be able to conduct a full-fledged battle with enemy air targets, even if their modernization takes place in the coming years.
Thus, the modern and new S-300 "Favorite" was produced exclusively for export. The existing 2 divisions of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems are not enough even to completely block the airspace of even any small country.
Naval forces
The Russian Navy is also in an extremely miserable state. Only about 60 submarines and ships of the 1st and 2nd rank will remain in its composition by 2015. All these ships are outdated models.
Military-technical cooperation
It should be noted that military-technical cooperation is the most beneficial direction for the Russian Federation. The country ranks second in the world among exporters of military equipment and weapons. Despite this indicator, in 2010, in terms of exports, the Russian Federation experienced significant declines, including:
- the order for the delivery of the IL-78 tanker aircraft and 38 IL-76 transport aircraft to China was failed;
- Algeria returned to Russia 10 MiG-29 bombers, which were rejected due to their poor quality;
- failed a tender for the supply of 4 diesel submarines and 35 Su-35 bombers to Brazil. This country chose to sign an agreement with France. If Russia won the tender, it would receive over $ 4 billion and 50 regional Embraer aircraft;
- one of the major arms tenders worth 10 billion dollars, which was held by India, was disrupted. This state abandoned the modernized combat fighter MiG29 - MiG35. The Indian Ministry of Defense has officially notified the Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG (RSK) and Rosoboronexport about the interim results of the Indian tender, which was announced back in 2007. The document contains 14 points of a detailed analysis of the shortcomings of the proposal of the Russian side - one of which concerns engines.
Note that this tender provided for the supply of 126 fighters to the Indian Air Force and was estimated at an amount exceeding $ 10 billion. This failure of Russia in the Indian tender, according to analysts, effectively means that these fighters will not be supplied to its own air force, and also greatly reduces the chances of the Russian Federation to sell them to anyone else in the world. Experts also note that the failure in the tender actually raises the question of "life and death" for both the MiG-35 fighter and the corporation that produces it in general.
Defense industry problems
The reduction in the volume of sales of military equipment and weapons had a devastating effect on the state of the entire military-industrial complex of Russia. It should be noted here that market relations are in serious confrontation with the main positions of its functioning. This is confirmed by the shutdown and reduction of a number of enterprises in the complex.
This is accompanied by the loss of existing advanced technologies and the loss of experienced personnel. In addition, due to outdated technologies, it is impossible to develop promising topics for weapons, put them into series and supply the country's armed forces. For these reasons, the priority is currently given to the purchase of foreign-made equipment and weapons, which, according to the calculations of the Russian defense department itself,will significantly reduce the gap with Western countries.
In conclusion. All the above facts boil down to the fact that the widespread information about the militarization carried out in recent years, the restoration of Russia's military potential and power does not correspond to the existing realities.
In fact, there was a complete degradation of the Russian army.
Against such a background, the personnel of the Russian army cannot be ignored. Thus, over the recent period, the number of crimes in the ranks of the armed forces has increased significantly; conflicts on an interethnic basis have become more frequent; hazing is becoming more and more widespread; the number of those convicted of crimes and from the number of officers is gradually increasing. These problems were timed to coincide with a joint expanded meeting of the collegiums of the main military prosecutor's office and the Russian Ministry of Defense, which took place about a month ago in the capital.
At the meeting, prosecutors separately noted that since the beginning of this year alone, more than 500 crimes of violence have been registered in the army, during which more than 20 servicemen were seriously injured and several people died. As for the officers themselves, according to the Chief Military Prosecutor S. Fridinsky, "in the last 5 years alone, the number of convicted Russian admirals and generals has increased by 7 times." Also, over the last period, the number of cases of "bullying" has been sharply expanding and growing, and in military units "nationalist groups" are introducing their own criminal rules.
And finally, as S. Fridinsky noted, the number of crimes related to the manifestation of corruption has increased in the Russian army. The Chief Military Prosecutor of Russia was forced to admit that if 5 years ago only every fifth of the senior officers was noticed in crimes related to corruption, today every third officer commits such offenses.
P. S. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) recently published new data on defense spending in the world for the past year, according to which they reached the level of 1.6 trillion. dollars. This is 1.3 percent more than was spent in 2009.
The region that most of all increased military spending in 2010, according to analysts at the Stockholm Institute, is South America (an increase of 5.8%). The Institute's experts believe that this continued rise in defense spending on the South American continent is surprising given that there are no real military threats to most countries and more pressing social issues. With regard to data for other regions, SIPRI experts noted a fall of 2.8 percent in military spending in Europe.
According to them, slight growth was observed in Asia and Oceania (1.4 percent), in the Middle East (2.5 percent). According to Stockholm experts, despite the drop in global defense spending, the leading place in this process continues to be held by America, in which the growth of military spending in 2010 amounted to 2.8 percent.
The Institute's experts also published a list that included the top ten countries leading in terms of defense spending. It, as in 2009, is headed by the United States. The second, according to experts, is China, the third and fourth positions are shared by Great Britain and France.
The aforementioned five is closed by Russia, whose share in defense spending for 2010 is, according to experts, 3.6 percent. Japan, Saudi Arabia, Germany, India and Italy are next on the list.
Note that the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) was founded in 1966 and this institution is an independent think tank that studies military conflicts, armaments, disarmament and arms control.
