Anatoly Serdyukov told exactly when the Defense Ministry plans to complete the military reform. The minister also promised that they would not increase the conscription term.
According to the head of the department, all transformations in the army will end by 2020. Previously, other dates were called - 2016 or even 2012. As explained by Serdyukov, in fact, the reform of the army is taking place in three stages and is still far from complete.
The first stage is organizational measures and staff reduction. "We have already completed them. We have reached the number of 1 million, of which 150 thousand will be officers, about 100-120 thousand will be professional sergeants, and the rest will be conscripts," RIA Novosti quotes the minister. ".
Note that, according to the original plan, they wanted to completely replace the conscripts with contract soldiers by 2010. Nevertheless, gradually and without much noise, the Ministry of Defense hushed up this idea, and then the head of the General Staff, General of the Army Nikolai Makarov, admitted that the full transition to the contract had to be abandoned due to lack of funding.
As part of the reform, the term of military service was reduced from the traditional two years to one year. Today Anatoly Serdyukov assured that there can be no question of any increase in it, despite various rumors about this.
At the second stage, social issues will be resolved - increasing the salaries of contract officers and sergeants, solving the problem with apartments, and so on. And only at the third, final stage of the reform, it is planned to equip the army with the most modern weapons. Recall, according to President Medvedev, now the troops are 85% equipped with morally and physically obsolete equipment.
“Armament is a rather lengthy process. We have divided it into two parts. Until 2015, this is the first stage, and 2020 - this will be the second. at least 30% and by 2020 - about 70% , - explained Serdyukov.
