DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS MILITARY ENTERPRISES MUST CONSOLIDATE
gor Sergeev has said the military-industrial complex must be consolidated and made more efficient if it is to survive. During his two-day tour of military bases in Central Russia, Sergeev said the Defense Ministry will be able to pay only 500,000 workers and soldiers this year out of its budget and only 780,000 in 1998, "Krasnaya Zvezda" reported on 16 October. The newspaper noted that some 2.5 million people currently work in the military sector. Sergeev also said research institutes and military manufacturers will have to compete in the market place to stay afloat. He noted that it makes little sense for Russia to have 37 separate aircraft manufacturing plants and for its design bureaus to be developing six new fighter jets, when the U.S. is working on just two and Europe one.
1998 CIA Report
During a command post exercise held in March and April of last year, Russian military commanders called in nuclear strikes on a simulated attack by NATO ground forces and Lithuanian and Polish troops along the Poland-Belarus border.
Pravda
The Military Security of Russia
Summary
Russia to slash ground forces, rely on nukes By Bill Gertz
Washington Times 17 October 1997 [for personal use only] Russia to slash ground forces, rely on nukes By Bill Gertz
Russia plans to cut its ground forces in half by 2005 and will rely more on nuclear weapons for future conflicts, according to a classified intelligence report.
WORK TO START ON NEW SUBMARINES.
Although the Russian Navy has not built a new surface warship from the keel up since the collapse of the Soviet Union, several new submarines have been developed. Yesterday the director of the Admiralty Shipyards in St. Petersburg, Vladimir Aleksandrov, announced that work would begin later this week on two new fourth-generation diesel-electric submarines. One - the St. Petersburg -will be built for the Russian Navy-, the other - the Amur - will be for export.
According to Komsomolskaya Pravda
More than $12.8 billion has been allocated for funding our programs for the creation of new types of weapons the year (the entire military budget amounts to $19 billion).
