Posted on 08/22/2003 9:19:38 AM PDT by knighthawk
MOSCOW: Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov on Wednesday criticised the Russian military’s level of combat readiness, saying that both he and President Vladimir Putin wanted to see improvements.
``Neither the president nor I am fully satisfied with the current state of combat-readiness in the Armed Forces,’’ the Interfax Military News Agency quoted Ivanov as saying.
Ivanov singled out the navy in particular. ``We are going to do everything so that the departure of ships to the sea isn’t a special occasion, but becomes a regular occurrence,’’ Ivanov said.
Russia’s navy has struggled to find funds to maintain its warships and had to scale back plans to modernise the fleet, a large portion of which needs overhauling.
For years the navy could not afford to send ships on long voyages, but Russia sent nine ships to the India Ocean this spring for joint exercises with India in its largest warship deployment since the 1991 Soviet break up.
The Russian military has suffered a long post-Soviet decline, with cash shortages limiting training and weapons purchases and many senior officers choosing to leave for higher salaries in the civilian sector. Putin has pushed for a leaner, more professional military instead of the bulky Soviet-style armed forces intended to confront the West.
Meanwhile, a scientist with the Russian Geological Institute said Russian scientists have uncovered evidence that chemical weapons may be buried in the seabed of the White Sea off Russia’s northwestern coast.
Scientist Mikhail Spiridonov, who returned this week from a two-week research mission to the area, said investigators found abnormally high amounts of arsenic in the water, along with 12 mysterious man-made objects, up to 10 meters long lying on the seabed, 300 meters down. Arsenic results from the breaking down of blistering gases such as Lewisite.
Good plan.
Goes well with all the nuclear reactors they dumped. I highly recommend reading the National Geographic book K-19 on which the movie was based. It gives a very good history of the Soviet Navy. Mismangement and bungling caused many a good Soviet sailor to lose their lives. The dumping of live reactors has the potential to be an environmental disaster.
No question the Soviets would have lost a conventional war the the West. Too much of their stuff didn't work.
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