Over the past ten years, our Armed Forces were to receive many new types of weapons. What did they get?
The first decade of the new century and the new millennium of Russia is over. Subtotals can be summed up. What has been done in the military-industrial branches of the domestic industry, in military construction and in the field of military-technical cooperation?
Analyzing the achievements and failures, one involuntarily recalls the phrase of the unlucky teacher from the film "Republic of SHKID". There was a fleeting character there, a teacher of literature, as they would say now - a typical populist. He did his best to satisfy the most primitive requests of his very difficult wards, but in the end he suffered a fiasco and was expelled from SHKID in disgrace. Leaving the territory of the boarding school, he turned to the windows, from which former students were looking at him with smirks, and exclaimed: “And how much was planned! And systematic trips to the opera, and free readings of Russian classics! AND…". But then the janitor, roughly cutting off the speaker, pushed him out the gate. In our humane and democratic country, none of the victims of the fiasco is disgraced in disgrace. But how much was conceived by them!
The onset of a new era in the 2000s was perceived by many with undisguised hope for renewal. The Minister of Defense was also not an old general, albeit from foreign intelligence, but still a general, and even a doctor of philological sciences, who knows foreign languages - a very intelligent person, even outwardly. Oil prices have gone up. It seemed that there would be no unsolvable problems in the country. Go Russia!
It was announced that a real reform of the Armed Forces was beginning, and that the previously adopted State Armaments Program - GPV - would be completely revised, filled with new content and, of course, new financial support. In order for the money to be spent purposefully, an experienced financier Lyubov Kudelina was sent from the Ministry of Finance to help the military. With the purchases of weapons for the army, aviation and navy in the nineties of the past century, things really did not go well in our country. First, there was a division of the united Soviet army.
Then it seemed that Russia got too surplus arsenals, and the industry could not order anything new at all. Not ordered, and the "defense" began to rapidly degrade
Then they could not work out a unified and, most importantly, a meaningful policy for the development of weapons. Indeed, what kind of Armed Forces does the new Russia need? What tasks should they perform if it was declared at the highest state level: we no longer have external enemies. President Boris Yeltsin somehow loudly ordered even to "unscrew" all nuclear warheads from strategic missiles so that they no longer frighten the European NATO members and, of course, the United States. The military, however, corrected their Supreme Commander-in-Chief, specifying that the warheads remained with the missiles, but all of them had their flight missions reset to zero. And they will be introduced only when the country faces a real threat of external aggression. This is probably how our Topol's are standing, aiming their finger at the sky - the threat has not emerged.
It is worth noting an interesting feature of military budget planning - both in the 1990s and in the 2000s. A certain strategic threat to Russia has disappeared, flight missions in the Strategic Missile Forces have been reset - there are no targets. And at the same time, the nuclear missile program has remained some kind of "sacred cow", more precisely, a "heifer" - there is no sense, but milk sucks. With unacceptably minimal expenditures for the purchase of weapons in the 1990s, the lion's share of the funds was spent specifically on the needs of the Strategic Missile Forces. There is a known conflict between the Minister of Defense - Marshal Igor Sergeev and the Chief of the General Staff, Colonel-General Anatoly Kvashnin. There were probably many reasons for mutual misunderstanding. One of them is that the NGSH tried to find out from the minister why billions of rubles - and dollars - are being spent on missile and nuclear programs, at a time when the war is going on in Chechnya, where the army does not have normal weapons, and the servicemen have nothing to pay even the beggarly salary. Kvashnin was a straightforward "tanker" who took responsibility upon himself, while Sergeev was a gray-haired strategist. One demanded answers, the other diplomatically left them. Both lost.
According to normal logic, if a country is going through a deep crisis, then its gold reserves can be wasted in the most extreme case, with the general consent of all those involved in public administration. In the Armed Forces, such a reserve was, of course, the heavy nuclear missile forces of the Strategic Missile Forces and the strategic submarines of the Navy. The aviation component in the Russian nuclear triad is negligible, it can be ignored.
However, in the "new Russia" for some reason they destroyed the most formidable missiles that could stand in service with minimal funding just until 2010, or even longer
In the Navy, the strategic Typhoon system was physically eliminated, in the Strategic Missile Forces - combat railway missile systems and most of the heavy silo-based missiles. The rivers of gold and currency flowed to the light "Poplar", to the "Bulava", to something else - in a bright wrapper, but questionable in content.
It is worth repeating: throughout the 1990s, the Kremlin has not decided what the Armed Forces are for - as a powerful policeman - peacekeeping - contingent, or still to protect the country's territory and its civilian population from external aggression. Hence the complete lack of clarity as to what kind of weapons should be ordered for the army, aviation and navy. The last truly professional chief of armaments of the Ministry of Defense was Colonel-General Anatoly Sitnov. He understood what financial capabilities the military department actually had. And he tried to make sure that all available money was spent only on breakthrough developments, on the purchase of what the Armed Forces really need, as they say, here and now. The main criteria for the fifth generation weapons were determined in all areas - missile, aviation, naval, small arms, electronic and others. Under the leadership of Sitnov, they developed a very real weapons program for ten years - from 1996 to 2005. The creation of a unique system of automatic command and control of troops - ASUV - "Polet-K" began.
Despite the fact that the fifth generation weapon was immediately and suddenly talked about at all levels, a real minuscule was allocated for its development: a good idea was subjected to elementary profanation. Work on the creation of ACCS was thwarted, the general designer of the system was arrested and almost sued on a trumped-up charge. Anatoly Sitnov himself was fired from the Ministry of Defense - they also tried to open a criminal case against him …
As mentioned above, the existing arms procurement program was declared obsolete at the beginning of the 2000s. First, a revised five-year GPV for 2002-2006 was adopted. It was successfully failed and a new one was developed, already ten years in advance, with a deadline for implementation in 2015. It seemed that over the years we would do something, by 2010 it was planned to update the Arsenal of the Armed Forces by almost half. The troops were supposed to receive new bombers, fighters, various missile systems of the Ground Forces, new ammunition, new self-propelled guns, new armored personnel carriers, a new tank, new small arms, new ammunition, and new means of communication. The navy was to receive new strategic missile submarines, new multipurpose submarines, including non-nuclear ones, new frigates and corvettes. All new…
In general, ten years after the millennium, the Russian army was to appear to the world in all its renewed splendor. After all, the flow of petrodollars did not decrease. The millennium has passed, the fat 2000s have passed … And what is the remainder? Very few. And how many were conceived …
Shortly after the intelligent general of foreign intelligence, who became the civilian minister of defense, Sergei Ivanov said that the military reform was completed and the routine work of building a modern Armed Forces was beginning - which would be reasonable - he was fired from his post as minister.
A new minister came from very civilian people, who said that the military reform had not even begun. He will start it - Anatoly Serdyukov, who has not previously been connected with the army, which means he is free from the old army prejudices. Started! And he even seems to have finished …
Naturally, it "turned out" that the State Armaments Program, adopted under Ivanov, turned out to be erroneous in almost all respects. Now a new GPV has been proclaimed, also ten years old, from 2011 to 2020. More than 20 trillion rubles will be allocated for it. True, for some reason, most of the purchases are planned to be carried out after 2015. And further. Composing the new GPV, the current leadership of the military department abandoned everything that a couple of years ago seemed very promising and even close in its performance characteristics to the fifth generation weapon.
The long-suffering project of a new tank, Object 195, has been closed. Meanwhile, this vehicle was developed as a multifunctional platform for a wide variety of weapons of the Ground Forces. Almost all areas for the development of domestic armored vehicles have been closed. Including, a completely unique object - a tank support combat vehicle - BMPT. Closed "promising" BTR-90, although it was officially adopted in 2008. By the way, this armored vehicle is also a promising wheeled platform for various types of weapons. But Anatoly Serdyukov personally did not like it, as they say, and they no longer give money for it. The Vodnik lightweight universal armored platform is closed. The new amphibious tank "Sprut" is closed. The USSR is the only country in the world that was armed with a PT-76 amphibious tank. The Russian "Sprut" was supposed to be a continuation of the Soviet legacy. They did not give it, they recognized the project as unpromising. The introduction of armored jeeps of the "Tiger" type into the troops and the development of a deeply modernized BTR-82 began to be blocked in every possible way. The large-caliber 152-mm double-barreled gun "Coalition" was closed. It could become a logical continuation of one of the world's best 152-mm self-propelled guns - "Msta". By the way, at international arms exhibitions, all countries producing artillery systems demonstrate just double-barreled guns of various calibers - as the most promising models. A number of areas were not formally closed, but their funding was cut, and they hung - neither living nor dead.
However, the most financially costly projects, although they did not give returns, did not experience a shortage of funds. Unsuccessful tests of sea-based missiles "Bulava" followed in succession. Sea trials of the Borey-class nuclear submarine, built for this missile, have begun. The Yasen-type multipurpose nuclear submarine was launched. Diesel "St. Petersburg" is being tested in the Baltic. This submarine was conceived as a breakthrough one, but it turned out to be a simple "diesel man". And although its creators assure that the boats of this project are almost the best in the world, the command of the Navy is cautiously probing the possibility of purchasing non-nuclear submarines … in Germany.
Several new ships have been commissioned by the Navy, albeit small ones, such as boats and frigates. They cannot influence the increase in the combat power of the fleet, but nevertheless these are really new projects. A unique missile system has been developed that can be placed in standard sea containers, called "CLAB". This is indeed a breakthrough in the creation of mobile missile systems. It would seem that such inexpensive, but very effective complexes are the green light in the new GPV, but the command of the Navy did not show increased interest in them.
The lightweight "Poplar" has finally been brought to a universal state. The new rocket can be placed both on a wheeled platform and in mines. The multi-headed "Yars" appeared. It has few separating heads - three or four, but still it is a step forward compared to the one-piece Topol. The fifth generation fighter - PAK FA - was designed and tested in the air. He must enter the Air Force again after 2015, and even then, if India helps.
However, the real breakthrough happened where it was not expected in 2000. The Russian Armed Forces have begun massive purchases of expensive weapons abroad.
Unmanned aerial vehicles were purchased in Israel along with the technology for their production. In France, two Mistral-class amphibious assault ships were ordered, as well as trial batches of FELIN combat ammunition. A plant for the assembly of Iveco-type armored vehicles was bought in Italy: Italian foreign cars are planned to be made almost the most widespread in the domestic army. An assembly plant for the Italian multifunctional helicopters "Agusta Westland" is under construction near Moscow. All these import orders have been allocated billions of euros in the military budget.
In the army itself, organizational staff activities have been completed. Divisions were reformatted into brigades. Instead of many military districts, four operational-strategic directions have been formed. They called them, without further ado, along the cardinal points - East, North, West and South.
It is impossible to summarize the overall result of the past decade in one review. However, it is clear that our society is again frozen in some kind of expectation. We seem to have entered a new starting line, finally determined, and if we make a powerful leap forward, then - Russia, forward! There will be no unsolvable tasks for us, but in 2020 …
In the late 2000s, we believed in the miracle of the coming breakthrough. Let us believe again, we are still nourished with hopes.
