The Armed Forces of Russia of the XXI century is not only a new type, but also a change and transformation of their essence, including a qualitative change in the ranks of the sergeant corps. What should a Russian sergeant look like in the 21st century? What is currently being done in the Russian Armed Forces to improve the professional training of sergeants? What should be taken into account from the wise domestic and rich foreign experience in this area?
It so happened that the current leadership of the Ministry of Defense had to start solving the problem of professional formation of the corps of junior commanders practically from scratch. This, of course, sounds paradoxical. For many years this problem has been talked about, written about, but things are still there, its current relevance has not diminished in the least. Although sometimes the impression was created that it was clear to everyone, the necessary goals were outlined, specific tasks were set and should be solved in the near future.
In 2003, President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces, Vladimir Putin, said the following: "We will, in the shortest possible time, equip all junior command personnel with professionals in a targeted manner." Indeed, in the same 2003, a federal target program was adopted, for the implementation of which huge sums of money were allocated. Eight years have passed and it became clear that this did not bring any results.
It is clear that all the participants in the figurative "round table" know that the current problem of sergeants did not appear yesterday, but we inherited it as a legacy from the Soviet army. As in the 70s of the last century, today it takes six months to train sergeants, this is the period during which a sergeant - a junior commander is trained from a green recruit. It is clear that it is almost impossible to train a professionally trained sergeant in such a short period of time. In addition to the knowledge of the Articles of the Charter, the future junior commander must have the skills of a teacher who will transfer his knowledge to his subordinates. Naturally, soldiers receive basic knowledge from their commanders, officers, but, as a rule, soldiers spend most of their time under the command of sergeants.
But, despite all the criticism and inadequacy of the system of training sergeants in the Soviet Army, it is necessary to highlight the best and adopt for the training of sergeants for the modern army. It is necessary to turn to history, because the training of junior commanders was also carried out during the reign of Peter I and Catherine II, and the experience is quite rich.
For high-quality training of sergeants, the Kazakh army took advantage of the offer of the British army, which took over the sponsorship of the training of junior commanders of the country's army. It must be admitted that the British instructors conduct the training quite effectively. Switzerland does not have a standing army, but there are more than a thousand non-commissioned officers serving among the police, who undergo retraining every five years.
The modern tasks of training and educating young soldiers have become incredibly complicated: many officers have been laid off, most warrant officers have been fired, there are no new sergeants yet. Meanwhile, modern conscripts in Russia serve only one year, and the Ministry of Defense is trying to select and train professional sergeants from these years. If earlier it took six months to prepare, now they are trying to keep within three months. Training in such a short time does not make it possible to prepare a real sergeant who can become a junior commander.
Within three months, yesterday's student must not only master how to command subordinates, but what and how to teach them and how to maintain discipline. We can say with confidence that this is not possible.
There is also encouraging news, so the decision was finally made to train professional sergeants and it should be noted very thoroughly. The term of study is set - two years and ten months. It should be noted that there are very few such junior commanders. Because it is planned to have 150 thousand officers in the Russian army, taking this into account the number of sergeants should be 300-400 thousand. However, this year 250 sergeants will leave the Ryazan Airborne School, but this is nothing on the scale of the Armed Forces.
Of course, all future sergeants should not be trained according to a three-year program - it is necessary to introduce a graduated training system. The commander of a branch of a military unit can be trained within three months, but on condition that before that he served as a private for six months and was able to prove his leadership qualities.
