Russia will develop its nuclear forces until the world begins working on new agreements on arms control. That’s what Vladimir Putin promised today. The President held an expanded meeting of the panel of the Ministry of Defense. One of the main results of the passing year — The share of modern arms in the nuclear triad has amounted to 82%. Already entering into service are the Avangard hypersonic glide systems, against which no aggressors will be able to defend themselves in the foreseeable future. That’s exactly what domestic arms must be like — the best in the world.
A report by Evgeny Reshetnev.
Besides summarizing the key results of the year and setting tasks for the future, the expanded panel of the Ministry of Defense strategy also heard statements from the Commander-in-Chief.
Vladimir Putin: “We were always catching up. The atomic bomb was created by the U. S. And the Soviet Union was only catching up. We didn’t have a means of carrying or delivering nuclear weapons, either. We didn’t have strategic aviation. The Soviet Union was catching up. The first missiles of intercontinental range also appeared outside our country. The Soviet Union was catching up. Today, we have a unique situation in our modern and recent history. We’re being caught up with.”
No other country in the world, says Putin, has hypersonic weapons right now, let alone weapons able to cross intercontinental range. Russia does have them. For example, the Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missiles are already in service. The Peresvet laser systems have also already entered the Armed Forces, the name of which honors the Russian bogatyrs. It was chosen by an all-Russian vote. This week, the Avangard missile systems will enter combat duty near Orenburg.
Sergey Karakayev, Commander of the Strategic Missile Forces: “It’s the latest technology, and we’re proud that it has succeeded in terms of entering combat duty”.
The Russian forces already demonstrated the Avangard system to U. S. inspectors, following the letter of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. While the U. S., apparently, keeps following the way of destroying the agreements which were achieved with great effort.
Vladimir Putin: “A serious concern is caused by the degradation of the arms control system. I mean that not only did the United States of America break the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty under an absolutely made-up pretext, under an absolutely unfounded pretext, they’ve also created, starting this November, uncertainty regarding its further participation in the Treaty on Open Skies. Uncertainty also remains in the perspective of prolonging the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Let me add that everything is happening in the background of the increasing potential of the United States of America’s global missile defense system. We see and realize that, don’t we? That’s why we need to stay the course of strengthening and developing our army and navy”.
The U. S. military budget will exceed $750 billion next year. It’s comparable to what all of the other countries in the world combined spend on defense.
Sergey Shoygu, Minister of Defense: “Amidst the military expenses of the U. S. and other countries growing year by year, the military budget of Russia has remained practically the same for several years. While in 2018 we had the seventh-highest military spending among the world’s leading countries, we are eighth in the current year and will be the ninth next year”.
However, not everything is decided by money considering that, having far more modest expenses, Russia deployed the new Vityaz missile system, which is one-of-a-kind kind in the world. Just like the Zircon hypersonic missile, which, as it has become known, will be used by both coastal complexes and military ships. The Sarmat missile — the Russian forces are preparing for flight tests — will replace the Voevoda, the most powerful silo-launched strategic missile in the world.
Vladimir Putin told about all these newest technologies from the defense industrial for the first time during his message to the Federation Council last year, which became sensational. At that time, the president also announced another superweapon — the Burevestnik unlimited-range cruise missile. Today, the president confirmed that the work is going as planned.
Vladimir Putin: “What shall we use so that we can, we must, and we will walk forward? We shall use our brains. Our intellect. We shall organize our work better. We shall minimize theft and sloppiness. We shall concentrate our efforts in the main areas which will provide us with a high level of the country’s defense capability”.
The Russian Aerospace Forces will receive over a hundred modern aircraft. For illustrative purposes, the Ministry of Defense organized an exhibition in its spacious atrium. It has models of advanced arms. Everything here is the most modern stuff that the Armed Forces have today. From knives to battleships, satellites and fighter jets. The President inspected the exhibition with curiosity; however, many of these models were seen in action by him during drills at test sites.
“The work on constructing the Sarmat missile system continues”.
A new technology for the Airborne Troops is this parachute for landing tandem; if we omit the dog.
“As of this day, the dog has done 12 jumps”.
During the inspection, Putin repeatedly said: “These are the weapons that are equal to foreign models.” It was only later that the president noted, “We need them to be superior”.
Vladimir Putin: “This is not a game of chess where a draw is fine. Sometimes. This is the military organization of the state. Our hardware must be better. We can try to achieve that. We’re achieving that in key areas of development. We need to work like that in all fields.”
Next year, the army will receive 14 ships, 3 submarines, and 18 fleet support boats and ships. There are so many ships being built and commissioned that journalists wonder if there’s enough imagination to name them all.
Nikolay Yevmenov, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy: “These are either names of eminent military and political faceted personalities of the Russian state or the names of our cities”.
Nikolay Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council: “We indeed have modern weapons today. We’ve learned to use them and do so effectively. But we spend a minimal amount of resources”.
The share of modern weapons in Russia’s nuclear triad has reached 82%. It is encouraging since NATO and the U.S. don’t give up on their attempts to surround Russia with their missile complexes.
Considering all that, the key task will be solved — the level of modern equipment in the army shall be no less than 70% by the end of next year. This number has already been achieved in many branches of the Armed Forces. But the key point, which the Commander-in-Chief mentioned today, is not to achieve certain numbers, but to keep them on a given level. Modernization and supply of new, modern types of arms to the army shall occur constantly.
Evgeny Reshetnev, Mikhail Alterkop, Viktor Mamaev — Vesti from the Ministry of Defense.
