Translated material
The end of the doctrine?
In uniform
The end of the doctrine?
November 20, 2008 Alexander Golts
A week ago, November 11, strange events took place in the Ministry of Defense. It was known that on this day a meeting of the expanded college of the military department was scheduled "with the invitation of the leading composition of the armed forces, representatives of the presidential administration, federal legislative bodies." There were stubborn rumors that the Supreme Commander -in -Chief (aka President) Dmitry Medvedev would also arrive at the meeting. Indeed, following the prevailing tradition, the head of state at the end of the year meets the highest military leadership, evaluates the results of combat studies and gives indications of the future. In the era of Vladimir Putin, during such meetings, the military leaders sometimes arranged a cruel spacing, and sometimes dismissed from their posts. This time the meeting was to become especially curious. A few weeks ago, Dmitry Medvedev signed the mysterious document “The promising appearance of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the priority measures to form it for 2009 - 2020”. So far, only it is known about him that he involves very large-scale abbreviations-military units and formations, military educational institutions, and the number of officer corps. It is not known how these reductions will be carried out, nor - the main thing - what will be this very appearance of the armed forces after their implementation.That is why a considerable interest arose in the “expanded collegium”. It was assumed that both the president and the Minister of Defense would be forced to shed light on reform plans in one way or another. But Medvedev did not come to the collegium, and instead of any intelligible description of the upcoming reforms, an information note consisting of three lines appeared. It boiled down to the fact that “the head of the Russian defense department emphasized that the result of the work of the college should be a complete understanding of the tasks facing the armed forces for the coming years. In this regard, it is necessary to develop uniform approaches to their decision, taking into account the course taken to optimize the army and navy. ” From which it follows that even the highest generals still do not have “single approaches”, or even “complete understanding of tasks”.
In this situation, any person trying to analyze military policy is in the position of a paleontologist who restores the appearance of the ichthyosaur in one single bone. Such a “bone” turned out to be with me.
I already wrote that the reduction of the officer corps, the creation of the corps of professional sergeants and the corps of “professional reservists” actually means the end of the concept of the mass mobilization army. Just this hypothesis has received another confirmation. The military leadership decided to inform about its plans. Of course, not society, but the elected deputies of the State Duma and members of the Federation Council. The head of the General Staff, Nikolai Makarov, met with them in a “closed mode”. From this meeting, the figure sailed, which seems to me completely sensational. According to the plans of the Ministry of Defense, in wartime the number of armed forces should be only 1.7 million military personnel. This means that even in the case of war it is supposed to mobilize not millions of reservists, but only 700 thousand soldiers. Which, in turn, means that the military department in a radical way revises the system of organizing the defense of the state.
In order to make sure of this, it is enough to open any of the doctrinal documents, even a military doctrine , at least “relevant tasks of developing the armed forces” . There, literally through the line, it is said about the mobilization readiness, the mobilization deployment of the army and industry. And is it all for 700 thousand military personnel? In fact, the military-political leadership is seriously intending to break with the concept of the mass mobilization army, which built a strategy for protecting the country for the past STO for the last years.
This gap is not easy. It would seem that if the defense is now not needed by a giant trained mobgaren, then why maintain a call? The only rational explanation that I managed to get is as follows. It is quite obvious that the soldiers who have been serving for one year are completely unlawful. And without extreme need, they should not be thrown into battle. The meaning of their stay in the army is that some of them during the year of service, perhaps, will be able to persuade to sign the contract. After all, military, armed forces are completely uncompetitive in comparison with other power structures, such as the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB border, where they pay much more. That is, if you call a spade a spade, then we are not talking about any “honorary duty” and “sacred duty” at all. The Ministry of Defense hopes to fool 18-year-old boys and thus provide themselves to contractors. Professionals on which now - when the army ceases to be massly - will be good - will be the task of protecting the Fatherland. However, there is every reason to believe that these calculations will not work at all. And most military service soldiers will prefer to get silent for one year and not to sign a scientifically unprofitable contract. So very soon the military department will understand that the armed forces must be made attractive for service. And then either the need for a call will simply disappear, or you will have to return to the mass mobilization army. Alexander GoltsAll rights to materials located on the EJ.ru website are protected in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, including copyright and related rights. With any use of the site and satellite projects, hyperlink (Hyperlink) on EJ.ru is required.