Source: China National Defense News
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| The S-300V air defense missile system installed by the Russian Aerospace Forces |
Recently, the Russian media quoted the speeches of President Putin and Defense Minister Shoigu at several important defense conferences to summarize the construction of the Russian military since the deep transformation in November 2012. According to reports, after 9 years, the Russian army has become an indestructible military force. In addition to accelerating the pace of refurbishment of the armed forces, the Russian army has also continuously promoted innovations in tactics, explored unique combat readiness training models, and accumulated rich practical experience, laying a solid foundation for more difficult tasks in the future.
Speed up the pace of change
Since 2012, the Russian Ministry of Defense has strictly implemented the military refitting plan proposed by President Putin, introduced mechanisms such as defense order acceptance, and accelerated the development and deployment of new weapons. The proportion of modern weapons and equipment of various services and arms has been increasing year by year.
The Russian Army receives 2300 to 2500 sets of new or improved weapons each year, and modernization of equipment accounts for close to 58%, which is about 20% higher than 9 years ago. The navy has installed 49 ships and various support ships in the past four years. By the end of this year, it will receive more than 40 surface warships and various multi-functional speedboats. The modernization of conventional weapons accounts for more than 70%. At the Sochi defense-themed military conference, the Russian Ministry of Defense signed a long-term contract with the military-industrial group to equip the navy’s surface fleet and submarine forces with “caliber” cruise missiles.
The land-based strategic early warning force of the Air and Space Force, with the “Voronezh” new strategic radar as the main body, has basically realized the deployment of the surrounding borders. The Air Force has installed 25 S-400 air defense missile systems and more than 70 new fighters in the past 4 years, and modernized more than 20 S-300 air defense missile systems and more than 90 aircraft. The first S-500 air defense and anti-missile brigade officially entered combat duty in October. Recently, the first improved S-300V air defense missile system has completed a hypersonic vehicle and ballistic target interception test. Shoigu said that in the next two years, the Russian Aerospace Forces will install more than 200 modern fighters.
In terms of strategic nuclear forces, at the beginning of this year, the modernized equipment of the Russian military’s nuclear forces accounted for 86%, and it is expected to exceed 88% by the end of the year. Among them, more than 95% of the launchers of the Strategic Rocket Army are in standing combat conditions, and the replacement rate of the “Yars” missile regiment is close to 70%. The upgrade of long-range aviation strategic bombers is progressing smoothly. At least one Tu-160M2 and three Tu-95MC strategic bombers have been upgraded. The nuclear submarine force has fully entered the four-generation boat era. According to reports, the Russian military’s strategic bombers and strategic nuclear submarines have routinely carried out strategic cruises in the global sea and airspace. Take the 22nd Heavy Bombing Aviation Division as an example. In 2021, the division dispatched Tu-160 and Tu-22 strategic bombers to cruise the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans 15 times.
According to the data of the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Russian airborne troops will install more than 300 weapons and equipment, 12,000 sets of airborne and parachute equipment in 2021, and modernized weapons and equipment account for 75% of the total. In particular, the successive delivery of airborne platforms such as the Mi-8AMTSh armed helicopter will help expand the mission scope of the Russian army and improve the response level of the battlefield.
Accept the actual combat test
Shoigu said that after a deep transformation, the combat capability of the Russian Federation’s armed forces has increased by about 1.2 times. In addition to building a new type of joint operations command platform with the national defense command center as the core, Russia has also adjusted and reshaped its force structure in conjunction with recent local wars or mixed wars.
In the Syrian battlefield, the frequency of use of drones by various Russian services to carry out reconnaissance, fire guidance, and attack operations far exceeds that of other wars. The Russian army draws on Syria’s actual combat experience against terrorism and vigorously develops unmanned aerial vehicles. At present, the number of Russian military drones has increased to more than 2,000. At the Sochi National Defense-themed military conference, the Russian army announced the installation of the “Orion-E” attack drone and the “Wolf-18” interception drone. The Russian army has also continuously strengthened its armed forces through exercises in manned/unmanned coordinated tactics, “Aileron-10” swarm attacks, and “reconnaissance-firepower loop” tactics. In particular, the Russian army has tested the Su-57 fighter plane and the “Hunter” drone to fly at the same high speed for training, and the manned/unmanned cooperative combat capability has been greatly improved.
On this basis, the Russian army launched a combat module with a robot unit as the combat unit. In the Syrian counter-terrorism operations and the “Western-2021” strategic campaign exercises, combat robots such as “Uranus-9”, “Nelekhta”, and “Platform-M” formed synthetic units to perform many military tasks. According to the report, the Russian army has made full use of Syria’s actual combat experience, innovatively used intelligent tactics, and improved the quality of its military construction. In addition, the Russian military also summarized the characteristics of night combat, air defense, and airborne operations in recent military operations, and conducted training for weak links. The paratroopers successively organized high-altitude extreme airborne training, ultra-long-distance snow raid training, helicopter cable landing and reloading airborne training, integrating battlefield experience into daily training.
In order to keep up with the development of information psychological warfare in the form of “mixed war”, Russia established the General Administration of Military and Political Management in 2018. The first director of the bureau, Kartabov, stated that the agency’s primary responsibility is to conduct political mobilization and military education in modern “hybrid warfare”, and to show the Russian armed forces that hostile forces use various means to discredit Russia. Fight back. The Russian army has continuously enriched and improved its combat styles in the form of “mixed war”, and its overall combat strength has achieved a substantial leap.
Form a characteristic model
According to the report, in the past nine years, while adjusting the establishment structure, the Russian army also explored a series of combat readiness training models with Russian characteristics.
Among them, the most noteworthy is that the Russian army resumed surprise inspections of combat readiness. Since 2013, the Russian army has organized large-scale war readiness surprise inspections throughout the army and various military districts every year. The military districts and group armies will also organize their units to carry out similar activities. The surprise inspection of combat readiness has significantly improved the Russian military’s combat readiness. Foreign media assess that compared with 2012, the readiness and response capability of the Russian military’s standing forces has increased by more than 6 times.
The Russian army also promotes training through competitions through military and diplomatic activities such as international military competitions. With this kind of project as a guide, the Russian army has established a four-level selection mechanism of military region-group army-brigade-company platoon, which has improved the quality of training. In recent years, Russia has been actively building advanced research foundations, “era” military innovation technology parks and other defense technology innovation management institutions and platforms, innovating the military and government, scientific research institutions, universities and industrial enterprises cooperation model, and promoting the Russian military scientific research and technology products to combat effectiveness Conversion.
Putin stated that in the past nine years, the Russian army has formed a unique brand of training and combat readiness based on the characteristics of modern local wars and armed conflicts, laying an important foundation for mastering new combat styles.
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