Reform of the Armed Forces. There has not been such a controversial topic for a long time. But now we will not consider the reaction of society to the so-called. The "new look" of our army or the moral side of the matter. Better to talk about the financial side of the matter.
From 2011 to 2020 alone, it is planned to spend a total of 19 trillion rubles on new weapons. And the possibility of increasing this amount cannot be ruled out. This order of numbers cannot fail to attract attention, it even went so far that the now former Minister of Finance of Russia A. Kudrin lost his post due to disagreement with the volume of the military budget.
Indeed, what is almost two tens of trillions for? By 2015, it is planned to update most of the fleet of equipment of the ground forces and military aviation. For reference: one copy of the Su-34 front-line bomber costs more than a billion rubles, and the Air Force needs more than one or two of these aircraft. The price of the latest modifications of the MiG-29 fighter is not much less than that of the Su-34. In general, it can be noted that almost all of Russia's relatively sophisticated weapons have a corresponding price. Although a little pleased with the fact that similar foreign samples are not cheaper.
These same 19 trillion rubles, as it is not difficult to guess, will go not only for the direct purchase of weapons, some of them are intended to finance R&D on relevant topics. That is, the conclusion suggests itself that by the 15th year the troops will receive new equipment and new weapons, and by the 20th it is already worth expecting the appearance in the troops of those types of weapons that are just appearing on the blueprints. This will include new armored vehicles of the Armata family, the expected S-500 air defense system, and further development of Project 11540 patrol ships, etc.
On the surface, it all looks good and optimistic. But practice always and in everything tries to make adjustments. As you know, in any country and in any industry, only the development of the allocated finance is always carried out on time. The rest of the deadlines are almost always lacking. Will the rearmament of our army add to the list of victims of this pattern? Let's be honest, it can replenish. The state defense order for this year has so far been contracted only by 95%, and this is in October. First Deputy Defense Minister A. Sukhorukov says that the remaining five percent of the contracts have not yet been concluded due to disagreements between the Ministry and the United Shipbuilding Corporation. These discrepancies, in turn, come from an unworked pricing system. Those. The Ministry of Defense requires USC to provide accurate estimates for work under contracts (in order to be sure that the price will not rise in the course of work), and it cannot provide such documentation for a number of its internal reasons. So the submarines "Alexander Nevsky" and "Yuri Dolgoruky" (project 955 "Borey") and "Severodvinsk" (project 885) will not enter service this year.
The same situation with the timing is "sick" and the aircraft weapons of Russia. Due to internal problems of the Irkut corporation, the first Yak-130 training aircraft will go to train pilots only next year, and not this year, as planned.
And this year, the air defense will also not receive two regiments of the S-400 air defense system. As a reminder, due to delays in the delivery of the first two regiments, the director of the Almaz-Antey State Design Bureau, I. Ashurbeyli, lost his post.
But there is also positive news: Russian Helicopters and the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering are fully coping with their obligations to supply helicopters and Yars strategic missiles, respectively. Another good news: The state defense order for 2012 may avoid the fate of the order for the current year. At least for now, more than 460 enterprises have already shown their readiness to participate in tenders, and half of the applications have been approved by the Ministry of Defense.
Also, next year, the construction of two plants will finally begin at once, where anti-aircraft missile systems will be assembled. For a long time, the Ministry of Finance did not give the go-ahead for this construction - they believed that two new factories would be too expensive for the country, even despite their future benefits. As a result, a compromise solution was found: only half of the construction will be financed from the state budget, the rest will be invested by private companies. Production at the new factories should begin in 2016.
The general figures, those that have been announced, regarding the upcoming purchases of equipment are as follows: the fleet will receive 8 submarines of the Borey project, two dozen non-strategic boats of the 885 project, 15 frigates and 35 corvettes. More than 600 aircraft and almost a thousand helicopters of various types and purposes will go to the Air Force by 2020. The air defense and missile defense forces will have to receive 56 divisions of the S-400 complexes, which will be simply impossible without new plants.
But with strategic missiles, tanks and small arms, almost nothing is clear. Information on the first is classified, and on the last two items there are no new samples ready for delivery to the troops yet.
At the moment, 8 years before the end of the rearmament program, it is impossible to say for sure whether it will be possible to carry it out in full and on time. But it is too early to make any predictions - negative or positive - as the program was launched only this year and has not even really gained momentum.
