So, the top of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has undergone dramatic changes. The post of head of the defense department was taken by the former governor of the Moscow region, Sergei Shoigu. On his submission, Colonel-General Valery Gerasimov was appointed Chief of the General Staff, who held the post of Deputy General Staff of the RF Armed Forces. In addition, Arkady Bakhin (previously the commander of the Western Military District) and Oleg Ostapenko (former commander of the Russian Military Space Forces) became deputy defense ministers.
At the same time, generals Gerasimov and Bakhin are also combat generals, who at one time managed, as they say, to smell gunpowder.
During the First Chechen campaign, Arkady Bakhin served as commander of the 74th motorized rifle brigade. He was wounded during the storming of Grozny. During the Second Chechen War, he participated in the formation and commanded the 42nd Motorized Rifle Division.
Valery Gerasimov is also far from being a "wedding" general. At one time, he commanded the 58th Army on the territory of the North Caucasian Military District, and he knows firsthand what military operations are like during large-scale military campaigns.
Obviously, after people who openly played the role of managers who achieve purely economic goals, people who are directly related not only to the theory of military affairs and management, but also to obvious practice, come to the leadership of the Ministry. The new leadership of the RF Ministry of Defense faces very difficult tasks, one of which is the need, shall we say, for a greater consolidation of the country's military-technical and personnel potentials. After all, it cannot be called a secret that in recent years, in the course of reforming the Russian army, there has been an obvious imbalance between individual elements of the Armed Forces, aviation and navy. There was a feeling that the high command lived according to the same laws, and the army itself remained either abandoned, or acting in the role of some scattered experimental mass, on which endless experiments were carried out. Moreover, the experiment on the army was not a point one, it was a total laboratory in which everything boiled, burned, sometimes exuding far from the most pleasant smells.
And one cannot say that such an imbalance occurred exclusively during the years when Anatoly Serdyukov was in office. Such an "army laboratory", which led to a decrease in the combat effectiveness of the army units of Russia, began to form immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Ministers and chiefs of the General Staff changed, but this did not lead to an increase in the prestige of the army service, or to moral satisfaction from the state of the Russian defense system.
In recent years, the "laboratory" has begun experimenting with activities in the plan of the State Defense Order. Moreover, these experiments caused frank bewilderment among many. 2011 and 2012 have shown that the Ministry of Defense either fails to cope with the responsibilities assigned to it to coordinate activities within the SDO, or deliberately tries to shift responsibility to other departments and structures. As a result, a situation arose when the Russian defense industry, even if it received orders, it was almost impossible to follow the 100% fulfillment of the plan for their implementation immediately after the contracts were signed. Instead of strictly monitoring the fulfillment of the terms of the contract under the State Defense Order, the defense department often stated that it would be better to give up the services of Russian enterprises producing military equipment and weapons to a certain extent, and reorient towards purchasing finished equipment abroad. Let, they say, even this technique is somewhat inferior to Russian models, but it will be presented to us on a silver platter … Such statements caused a storm of negative emotions not only among the military, but also among other Russians who are not indifferent to the course of reforming the army. However, statements about the need to return to support for the Russian manufacturer in the SDO plan were often altered either as a lack of understanding of the corruption component, or as open support for corruption schemes. As a result, the Ministry itself was burned by an innumerable series of corruption scandals, exposing the very impartial aspects of its work.
The new top of the Ministry of Defense is obviously in a situation in which it is necessary not only to clear away the rubble of the previous leaders, but also not to forget directly about the troops - once; on the defense of Russian interests in terms of great geopolitics - two; well, and, in fact, increasing the prestige and combat capability of the Russian army - three.
Due to the fact that the Arctic has recently become one of the priority regions for defending Russia's interests, the Ministry faces the task of, inter alia, pursuing an active policy in terms of increasing the number of personnel in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of the country. In particular, the State Duma deputy, representing the Communist Party faction, Vladimir Komoedov (chairman of the Defense Committee) directly says that the General Staff will have to dress up in sheepskin coats and felt boots in the near future in order to effectively train Russian troops in the Arctic. These words are not devoid of logic for the reason that today Russia is waging a very real international battle for the recognition of its ownership of a huge section of the shelf in the Arctic Ocean.
We can say that the Arctic strengthening of combat capability is a special case, but it is from such special cases that the country's overall defense potential is formed, which will allow it to defend its interests regardless of the international political situation.
Of course, another important component of the activities of the new leadership of the Ministry of Defense, headed by Sergei Shoigu, is to increase the attractiveness of military service. As we all know, the attractiveness for young people serving in the Ministry of Emergency Situations was and remains quite high, and therefore we can hope that Sergei Kuzhugetovich will find means and methods to improve the microclimate in the troops themselves, which should solve the immediate tasks of improving the defense capability of Russia … After all, you can talk a lot about the need to strengthen the borders, the procurement of new weapons systems, but at the same time we must not forget that it is the morale of the army that is the basis of its effectiveness. You can change everyone into a new uniform, assign a new rank and increase the level of monetary allowance, but this will not always help to stimulate the formation of a positive moral character of the army. That is why the task of the new minister and his immediate subordinates, who are perfectly familiar with military traditions, is, first of all, to ensure the revival of such concepts as "honorable duty", "officer's honor", "military brotherhood". Let someone these terms seem hackneyed and overly pretentious, but from this they do not lose their relevance and allow you to give the army a new impetus for development.
Strengthening the role of intelligence, improving its methods and modernizing means is one of the priority tasks of the military department. If today this topic is bypassed, then, according to the apt expression of one well-known politician, at best the army will "beat the tails". In other words, we will react to what has already happened and will not always be able to prevent negative developments. The development of means and methods of reconnaissance will allow one to outstrip potential adversaries and translate the situation into a channel favorable for the country. Being one step ahead of your opponents in assessing the strategic situation is a huge handicap, which clearly plays to increase the country's defense capability.
Of course, one of the spheres of development of intelligence systems is the military space industry. It turns out that among the deputies of Sergei Shoigu, it was not in vain that there was a man who commanded the Military Space Forces - Oleg Ostapenko. This appointment suggests that a modern army should rely not only on, so to speak, the defense classics, but also on the use of new technologies in the implementation of combat missions. The effect of space surveillance over a certain region allows for effective coordination of the actions of army formations, units and subunits on the ground (in the air and at sea).
In general, the tasks and plans of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff are enormous. The main thing is not to start cutting from the shoulder and at the same time not to get completely bogged down in the reform swamp left by the previous leaders of the main military department.
