Russian navy to have its wings clipped

The aviation of Russian missile strategic troops and the aviation of the Russian navy will be handed over under the subordination of the Air Force. This is going to take place within the scope of the ongoing reform of the Russian Armed Forces. The change is going to take effect by April 1, 2011.

As is well-known, any of such changes in the armed forces may weaken them against the background of the changing market of raw materials of the planet. This may become an additional reason for a foreign aggression.

Konstantin Sivkov, the first vice president of the Academy of Geopolitical Sciences, told Pravda.Ru that there were incidents in the past, when the naval forces were left without aviation.

"It happened to Nazi Germany, when Hermann Goering succeeded at reassigning the country's air force, which he was the commander of. As a result, Hitler's attempt to destroy England through the naval blockade failed. The German navy lost its eyes when it was deprived of the aviation. The data about the movement of enemy's vessels would be delivered to the naval command too late and sporadically.

"In most cases, Nazi submarines and surface vessels were acting randomly. They missed many targets, and England continued to receive help by sea. Nowadays, the consequences from the reassignment of the naval aviation can be a lot larger. Any more or less large vessel is supplemented with aviation today. Even most recent versions of corvettes have aviation - helicopters. As a result, the naval command would have to contact their colleagues from the air force to get a permission to use a chopper in a battle.

"A common person will not see anything terrible in this reassignment. It seems that there is nothing wrong about the fact that all planes and helicopters would fall under common command. However, the peculiarities of training and actions of the air force and the navy are absolutely different. A flight above the ground and a flight above the sea surface requires different levels of training. The requirements to strike ground-based targets differ a lot from the requirements to conduct an attack against seaborne targets, such an an aircraft carrier or a submarine. For instance, long-distance aviation used to strike large strategic goals on the map, is incapable of detecting and destroying submarines," Sivkov said.

Alexander Mordovin (air force major-general):

"There is an impression that the people don't know what they have under their command. It's like the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. This is quite symbolic that such a reform is expected to be conducted by April 1. There is no point in such reforms at all. Someone apparently decided to put all eggs in one basket. Reassigning the naval aviation to the air force? This is remarkably stupid. First of all, the air force command will not know what to do with that all. Secondly, another bureaucratic barrier will emerge. The barrier will complicate the coordination of actions between different types of troops.

"In today's combat actions it is minutes and seconds that matter, not hours. All of this bureaucracy and additional coordination - this is destruction, not victory. For example, the commander of the Air Force is not allowed to deliver an order to transport aviation without a permission from the General Staff. Apparently, the real goal of these reforms is to sell everything and buy luxury cars for reformers. Russia is not going to exist long with such an approach. It seems that the people living here need to study the Chinese language already," the expert said.

Sergei Balmasov
Pravda.Ru

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