Last Sunday, Russian Defense Minister A. E. Serdyukov, together with his Ukrainian counterpart M. Yezhel, attended a meeting with teachers and cadets of the Presidential Cadet School in Orenburg.
The head of the Russian military department, Anatoly Eduardovich, finally decided to comment personally on conversations that the new military uniform "haute couture" does not meet the requirements of a harsh soldier's service.
"This is someone's insinuations," snapped Serdyukov. “She is a level higher than the previous military uniform. I have no doubts about the quality of the new form. It was first tested in the GRU special forces and servicemen of the 45th separate reconnaissance regiment of the Airborne Forces,”the minister said.
According to the Minister of War, the fashion designer V. Yudashkin was just a consultant, to a greater extent the form was developed by the specialists of the Ministry of Defense. He noted that the new form is designed for various regions of Russia. “The form is lightweight, practical. She has high performance. It is a level higher than the previous military uniform, ranging from threads, zippers, fabrics, linings to insulation. No wonder it is more expensive. Like everything new, it is perceived rather difficult,”said Serdyukov.
170,000,000 rubles were spent on the creation of a new form. A new form called "Digit" was created from May 2007 to 2010. Fashion designer Yudashkin and specialists from the Central Research Institute of the Garment Industry and the Central Clothing Department of the Russian Ministry of Defense took part in the development. In 2009, 20,000 sets of new uniforms were transferred to the troops for experimental wear.
In total, 80 samples of a new form of clothing were developed, including casual, ceremonial, for the system and field. In March 2010, President Medvedev, by his decree, transferred the army to a new uniform from Yudashkin. Its implementation began at the end of 2010. Almost immediately, the first signals appeared that the clothes were not suitable for the harsh conditions of the soldier's service. In mid-December 2010, more than 100 soldiers were injured in Kuzbass near the city of Yurga. And in early 2011, a surge of pneumonia occurred among the military personnel of the Chebarkul garrison. Various human rights organizations started talking about the fact that the cause of the hypothermia of the servicemen could be a new form, but officially these assumptions were not confirmed then. They were confirmed a little later: in February 2011, the military prosecutor of the Central Military District, E. Ivanov, reported that the military personnel of the district had complained about the cold uniform to the military prosecutor's office.
Alexander Kanshin, deputy chairman of the Public Council under the Ministry of Defense, head of the National Association of Reserve Officers of the Armed Forces "Megapir" expressed the following opinion on the same occasion: "Mass hypothermia of the soldiers was caused by the peculiarities of the military uniform of the new model." “We are talking about the so-called winter field suit, which consists of a jacket and trousers in camouflage colors, made of polyester-viscose fabric with synthetic insulation. Such uniforms are provided for units of the Central Military District of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and, above all, for servicemen called up in the fall of 2010”.
According to Kanshin, significant shortcomings of the new form were identified in the military units of the Central Military District, stationed in the Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinburg, Ulyanovsk, Chebarkul, Kazan, Izhevsk, Samara and Tyumen garrisons. He believes that the main reason is in the materials, since instead of the “holofiber” insulation, cheaper materials were used in the state order. “I don’t know what happened in the end, but, probably, they wanted the best - it turned out as always. We saved on consumables, and the result is obvious,”said Kanshin.
Kanshin substantiated the above arguments with the results of an audit of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance of the Central Military District, whose experts interviewed sick soldiers: 6 out of 10 patients complained of insufficient thermal insulation qualities of clothing. A fifth of the servicemen asked to change the stand-up collar, provided in the new uniform, for a fur collar from the old-style winter uniform. About half of the soldiers would like to replace the polyester lining used in the new form with a bike or something similar. “Finally, three-quarters of the servicemen offered to transfer the shoulder straps from the chest and forearms to the shoulders, since the indicated places for the shoulder straps significantly interfere with them when boarding armored vehicles, as well as during the operation and repair of vehicles,” said Kanshin.
Although, for example, Alexander Belevitin, head of the main military medical department of the Ministry of Defense, in early February denied the connection between the quality of the new form and outbreaks of diseases. According to him, this year the number of patients with meningitis and pneumonia has decreased by four and six times, respectively.
Also during his visit to Orenburg, Serdyukov said that Russia and Ukraine would sign a new agreement on the rearmament of the Black Sea Fleet. “We are trying to formulate new provisions of this agreement,” explained Serdyukov.
At the same time, the minister allowed the participation of specialists from the Ukrainian enterprise "Yuzhmash" in the development of a new heavy liquid-propellant missile for the Strategic Missile Forces. It is planned to replace the Voevoda with this missile. Serdyukov added that Ukrainian specialists "to a certain extent participate in the maintenance of the Voevoda rocket, in extending its resource and in serial maintenance." According to Russian military experts, the Strategic Missile Forces are using about 50 R-36M2 and R-36MUTTH Voyevoda missiles, according to NATO classification - SS-20 Satan.
Russia is also ready to take the cruiser "Ukraine" unfinished in Nikolaev on acceptable terms. But there are no specific agreements yet. “We are waiting for preferable offers,” said Serdyukov. Mikhail Yezhel, in turn, said that the decision on the fate of "Ukraine" is "a matter of further negotiations." “As a former sailor who knows about the power of this ship, I will not be able to cut it for scrap,” he said.
cruiser "Ukraine"
In May 2010, the President of Ukraine V. Yanukovych said that Russia would finish building "Ukraine", as Kiev is not able to do it on its own. The completion of the cruiser, including the purchase of Russian missile weapons, will require several tens of millions of dollars. They tried to sell the cruiser to third countries, including Russia, India and China. “I think that Anatoly Eduardovich (Serdyukov) wants to have another such ship in the Russian Navy,” Yezhel said.
“Yes, for free,” Serdyukov remarked ironically.
