“The main thing is not the size of the military budget”: how Russia maintains a high level of army combat readiness

The Russian army has a high level of combat readiness, despite the modest size of the military budget. This was announced by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov at a lecture “Modern Military-Industrial Complex of Russia: New Challenges and Ways of Development” in front of cadets of the military training center of the Hero of Russia Siberian Federal University, General V.P. Dubynina.

“We are in sixth place (in the world) in terms of the absolute volume that we spend on weapons, and we manage to maintain parity and keep our Armed forces at a sufficiently high level of combat readiness, which guarantees the security of our state,” said Borisov.

According to him, Russian defense spending is 12-14 times less than the military budget of the United States, which will break the next record in fiscal year 2020 and reach $ 750 billion. As Secretary of Defense Sergei Shoigu noted, the Russian budget is 16 times less than the US.

Strategic priorities

In a December report on the development of the army, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stated that in 2018 Russia was in seventh place in military spending among the leading states of the world, in 2019 our country fell to eighth line, and in 2020 it will be in ninth position.

At the same time, as the head of the department emphasized, Moscow maintains the momentum of the rearmament of troops and the construction of military infrastructure. The stagnation of the defense budget does not impede the successful conduct of the Syrian operation and the various exercises that contribute to increasing the combat readiness of the Armed Forces.

According to the Ministry of Defense, combat experience was received by all representatives of the highest military leadership, from the commanders of the military districts to the commanders of divisions, brigades and regiments. Also, 90% of pilots, 61% of the crews of the ships of the Navy, 98% of the military police, 78% of the personnel of engineering divisions served in the UAR.

Last year, the military-industrial complex (MIC) transferred more than 6.5 thousand units of new and modernized weapons to the army. This made it possible to bring the share of modern samples to 68.2%. In 2020, as expected by the Ministry of Defense, this figure will reach 70%, which is planned to be maintained in subsequent years.

The priority in rearmament is traditionally given to nuclear forces that provide strategic deterrence to the United States. In 2019, industry supplied the army with Avangard hypersonic systems, Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and Peresvet laser systems. Today, the level of modern technology in the Strategic Missile Forces is 76%, in the nuclear triad - 82%.

In a planned manner, the modernization of the Ground Forces, Navy, VKS and Airborne. The renewed Mi-28NM helicopters, the strike modification of the heavy amble drone, and the new models of the fifth-generation Su-57 fighter’s missile bombs received baptism in Syria.

• Fighter of the fifth generation Su-57
• RIA News
• © Vladimir Astapkovich

Experts interviewed by RT believe that the results achieved in the development of the Russian Armed Forces testify to the successful cooperation of the Ministry of Defense and the defense complex. Modest, compared with the United States, military spending did not become an obstacle to the implementation of ambitious tasks.

“The main thing is not the size of the military budget. It is paramount that the military and industrialists were given clear and concrete tasks. As a result, Russia was able to achieve such a level of equipment with modern military equipment, which, I think, the armed forces of many countries dream of, ”explained RT the head of the Department of Political Science and Sociology of REU named after G.V. Plekhanova, retired colonel Andrei Koshkin.

“The addition to the economy”

As Yuri Borisov noted in his lecture, evidence of the high quality of Russian weapons is their relevance in the international market. The volume of the portfolio of export orders is $ 55 billion. Annually, Moscow sells military equipment for $ 14-15 billion annually. Such indicators allow Russia to maintain second place in the ranking of leading arms exporters.

According to Borisov, the most powerful domestic competencies in the field of air defense and aviation. As an example, he cited the success in the international market of the S-400 Triumph long-range anti-aircraft missile system, which was bought by China, Turkey and India. Negotiations are underway with several states.

“Combat aviation: according to flight performance, the latest Su-35 aircraft are a 4 ++ generation fighter, not to mention the Su-57 - at least they are not inferior to the leading models - the American F-22, F-35, and they are superior in terms of a number of flight performance characteristics, ”Borisov emphasized.

Deputy Prime Minister called arms exports “a serious increase to the economy.” He also noted the success of the military-industrial complex in diversification. Last year, the share of civilian products grew to 24.1%. In 2018, this figure was 20.9%. By 2025, the defense industry should produce up to 30% of civilian goods, and by 2030 - up to 50%.

As President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said, diversification is designed to ensure economic, technological and financial stability against the background of a reduction in state defense orders. Industry enterprises announced the implementation of more than 400 projects in the field of conversion. We are talking about the release of icebreakers for the Northern Sea Route, cruise and fishing vessels, as well as passenger aircraft.

“Once again, all the same, I repeat: in the work on diversifying production it is necessary to actively use the opportunities that the implementation of national projects opens up. As part of their implementation, the potential demand for civilian products of enterprises of the military-industrial complex now exceeds five and a half thousand positions, ”Putin said at a meeting of the Military-Industrial Commission last September.

In a RT commentary, Sergei Denisentsev, senior fellow at the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, also emphasized the leading role of national projects in the development of the defense industry in the near and medium term.

According to the analyst, with the necessary state support, domestic enterprises are able to replace the needs of the Russian Federation in medical equipment, industrial equipment, electronic equipment, civil aviation and ships of various types.

• Tanker built at the Nevsky Shipbuilding and Shiprepairing Plant
• © JSC "United Shipbuilding Corporation"

“The president pays great attention to diversification. This is a very complicated process. A number of issues are still not resolved, but it is obvious that the Russian leadership takes into account the unsuccessful domestic and foreign experience of “fencing” the defense industry. It is important that the conversion takes place in stages and is extended over a sufficiently long period of time, ”Denisentsev explained.

As the commercial director of Arsenal of the Fatherland magazine Alexei Leonkov told RT, in recent years, the production capacities of defense enterprises have undergone significant renewal. The modernization of workshops and equipment, as well as the support of scientific personnel, allows the Russian defense industry to increase the production of civilian products, create promising weapons and, on the whole, successfully fulfill the state defense order.

“The army and, to some extent, the Russian economy are quite dependent on the quality of work of the defense industry. The fact that our country fulfills all the basic tasks with the current volume of the military budget testifies to the correctness of the decisions made by the president. Now the army is in constant combat readiness and is able to adequately respond to any threats to national security, ”Leonkov summed up.