Russia gears up for World War 3

New equipment is a priority. There is also a dire need for reforms in organization, recruitment, training, pay and military doctrine.

The government has promised $640 billion over the next 10 years to buy new weapons. However, Russian arms manufacturers are no longer what they used to be.

"Our army now is in need of contemporary, modern equipment, and if the Russian defense industry can't yet provide us with what we need, we'll buy it abroad," stated First Deputy Minister of Defense, Aleksandr Sukhorukov.

New purchases include the land assault ship, the Mistral, bought from France; lorries from Italy, and flying drones from Israel.

Drones have proved a particular problem. The defense ministry has been dismayed by the performance of a Russian company tasked with designing and building them.

"I asked them what was their problem and what prevented them from producing good vehicles," recalls Aleksandr Sukhorukov. "The enterprise's bosses found plenty of excuses, such as the absence of engines, gliders, etc. But I know how much money they received and I saw the rubbish they produced," the First Deputy Minister complains.

However, not all new Russian-made weapons are falling below standard.

The SU-34 fighter bomber is widely considered an exceptional aircraft.

But few have been delivered so far, and the older models they were to replace are starting to fail.

"Although Russian designers come up with some excellent hardware, for instance, in terms of fighter and combat aircraft, sometimes the industry has trouble in maintaining these at a high level and actually producing them in the kinds of numbers that the armed forces need," Matthew Clements believes.

And the reforms still have angry opponents too both in and outside the armed forces.

Many of them argue that the re-armament is going just fine and that buying foreign weapons undermines Russia's military independence.

"We are becoming dependent on foreign suppliers of spare parts for military equipment, on foreign military personnel training, on foreign supplies of specific fuels and lubricants and other substances needed for the new equipment," Konstantin Sivkov, Doctor of Military Sciences, explained to RT.

"Nonsense," say other observers, citing the fact that in 2008, Russian forces pushed the Georgian army out of South Ossetia in just five days.

But experts were dismayed at how outdated and clumsy the Russian army looked when faced with real opposition.

It reinforced the need for serious change.

The money being thrown at the problem is vast, but regiments of roubles on their own will not be enough. Most at the defense ministry now know that before the armed forces are ready for modern conflict, a long and very demanding war for reform must be won, both in the corridors of government and in Russia's military-industrial complex.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Russian
• arms
• World War III
• Weapon
• omeg
• news

[HankBukowski11]

Here we are sitting at the front of the computer arguing if world leaders are going to ww3... That's because we let them! War is a confrontation by people that dont know each other, leaded by people who know each other but dont confront each other...

[JIMCROW246]

NUKE ISRAEL NOW TO PREVENT WW3

[1965CAPTKIRK]

@buff24seven what do you mean back? hes always been in charge.

[buff24seven]

Putin will be back soon don't worry the Russian bear will return.

[insanodirt]

when there are humans there will be war.'' stupid is : what stupid does''. said forrest.

[43MrMom]

@didi89s but after losing your foot....your hands will fall off also...maybe your other foot...would you want to live with no limbs? since our government would unleash every rocket anywhere they wanted to cut off......and TRUST me...i would never want them to do this at all !....it would better to let our own government to bleed out slowly...which is already happening.

[Archy11102]

russia only needs to maintain their nuclear arsenal. if someone attacks them they should simply wipe out the opponent. dont touch me - i dont touch you; touch me - i'll wipe you out of existence. it's a simple yet wise and effective policy.

[justanobody999]

all the ppl here on this comment board disagree as much as they do, so really you are ones to judge and talk all high and mighty (myself included I suppose) but on looking at ourselves can we really expect anything different from our "World leaders?"

[justanobody999]

imagine all the poor people we could feed if we didn't waste money on weapons. imagine if all the ppl fell into complete silence - hibernation- for a while...how much we could benefit if they they would stop doing destructive things, including throwing ignorant words back and forth. I wish all the teams in this terrible dartk game would rip their jerseys off and see that they all one and the same underneath their uniforms