GengisKhant
17th May 2006, 11:50
Moscow is heavily investing in strategic nuclear forces and special operations forces until it can reform its conventional military. The enlisted troops are in bad shape with low morale and problems linked to hazing, while the officer corps is good but lacks resources. Their best military forces are locked down in the Caucasus, and Russia is losing the war against insurgents in Chechnya. They have not produced any new planes or ships in the last five years. The majority of the money they are investing is being put into the Topol [multiple warhead] missile system.
According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Russia has some 1.2 million regular army troops and 360,000 interior ministry and federal security troops. The armed forces, which are transforming from a conscript force to a more professional volunteer army, are fragmented into three conventional armies vying for limited resources: the former Red Army, the MVD interior ministry troops and the federal security troops under direct command of Mr. Putin, a former KGB officer. Mr. Putins comments appeared in part to be a response to a recent Foreign Affairs journal article that said the United States is nearing "nuclear primacy" over Russia and China, the capability to launch a crippling nuclear first strike against its strategic rivals. The two authors, professors Keir A. Lieber and Daryl G. Press, say Russia’s nuclear forces, land-based missiles, strategic bombers and missile submarines, have so deteriorated that they are vulnerable to a surprise attack.
With a rapidly declining population, Russia will be unprepared to deal with a possible land grab by China in the Russian Far East in the coming decades - Russia has deployed more than 36 new Topol-Ms, also known as the SS-27, in the past two years to replace aging missile systems, the IISS said in its latest annual report "The Military Balance." It also is building a new class of missile submarines known as the Borey that will carry a new missile called the SSN-30, a submarine-launched version of the Topol. According to U.S. officials, some of the new missiles are equipped with maneuvering warheads that are designed to defeat U.S. missile defenses.
GengisK :ok:
According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Russia has some 1.2 million regular army troops and 360,000 interior ministry and federal security troops. The armed forces, which are transforming from a conscript force to a more professional volunteer army, are fragmented into three conventional armies vying for limited resources: the former Red Army, the MVD interior ministry troops and the federal security troops under direct command of Mr. Putin, a former KGB officer. Mr. Putins comments appeared in part to be a response to a recent Foreign Affairs journal article that said the United States is nearing "nuclear primacy" over Russia and China, the capability to launch a crippling nuclear first strike against its strategic rivals. The two authors, professors Keir A. Lieber and Daryl G. Press, say Russia’s nuclear forces, land-based missiles, strategic bombers and missile submarines, have so deteriorated that they are vulnerable to a surprise attack.
With a rapidly declining population, Russia will be unprepared to deal with a possible land grab by China in the Russian Far East in the coming decades - Russia has deployed more than 36 new Topol-Ms, also known as the SS-27, in the past two years to replace aging missile systems, the IISS said in its latest annual report "The Military Balance." It also is building a new class of missile submarines known as the Borey that will carry a new missile called the SSN-30, a submarine-launched version of the Topol. According to U.S. officials, some of the new missiles are equipped with maneuvering warheads that are designed to defeat U.S. missile defenses.
GengisK :ok: