Translated material
Career "Earth - Air"
Why the head of the Russian group in Syria is unlikely to receive the post of chief of the VKS
On September 26, the President of Russia resigned the Commander-in-Chief of the Military Space Forces of Viktor Bondarev.
Dismissal from the military service of Colonel General, Hero of Russia, at first glance looks sensational. The fact is that Bondarev was appointed head of the VKS on August 1, 2015, and it was he who led the preparation and direct relocation of the Russian air group at the Syrian air base. In fact, it was Bondarev who led the Russian military operation in Syria since the first military sorties of Russian aircraft made on September 30, 2015.
But in reality, the Kremlin’s personnel decision cannot be considered unexpected. The fact that Bondarev was moving to the Federation Council became known back in July, when candidates for governors of the Kirov region were registered and a contender in Moscow, a contender submitted to the Oblazbirk, named Bondarev as his representative in the Federation Council.
Elections in the Kirov region were held without surprises. And the Putin Decree on the dismissal of General Bondarev from the service is just the legal execution of a long -term personnel decision. The very next day, September 27, Viktor Bondarev was approved by the senator and even managed to elect the Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security.
The successor of Bondarev as the Commander -in -Chief of the VKS began to be selected in the summer. And even then, information leaked from the Ministry of Defense that three main applicants: Lieutenant General Igor Makushev, Deputy Head of the General Staff, Colonel General Alexander Golovko, commander of the Aerospace Defense forces, and Colonel General Sergei Surovikin, commander of the troops of the Eastern Military District, and since March 2017-the head of the Russian group of troops in Syria.
On September 22, some media even managed to write that the Kremlin made his choice, making a decision in favor of Sergei Surovikin, and that his appointment to the post of chief of the VKS will be held in October, immediately after his return from Syria. The Lobibists of Surovikin was not even embarrassed by the fact that he is a combined -arms general, and the VKS was not only aviation and interaction with the ground military military. The VKS tasks include, for example , “observation of space objects and the identification of threats against Russia in space and from space, and, if necessary, parrying such threats; ensuring the highest links in the management of reliable information on the discovery of starts of ballistic missiles and warning about rocket attacks; The implementation of spacecraft launches on orbit, management of military and dual -use satellite systems in flight and the use of individuals in the interests of ensuring troops with the necessary information. ”
For example, in 2019, the VKS plan to start unfolding the space optical-electronic intelligence system based on the distributors of the Razdan. In 2008-2015, three such satellites were launched. The first was lost back in 2008, two devices brought to orbit in June 2013 and June 2015 work as usual and are used, for example, to ensure surgery in Syria. Operational pictures from the "distribution" that are received in the General Staff have a very high resolution. In 2019, it is planned to begin the creation on the basis of these two satellites of the whole system.
The no less ambitious task of the VKS is to create a system of radar reconnaissance satellites from five devices that allow “seeing” living images on Earth in a submeter resolution that allows even the numbers of machines and the general features of a person’s appearance. And, unlike aerial photographs, in any weather.
The Kremlin, apparently, realized that the leader who had a philistine idea of the space program of the Ministry of Defense could hardly cope with these ambitious tasks.
Our sources in the Kremlin and the military department claim that Colonel General Sergei Surovikin is no longer considered as the successor of Viktor Bondarev.