Russian Army to Start Receiving Promising Samples of Weapons in 2008

The Russian forces will start to receive prospective samples of weapons in 2008. As Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said, the first to receive the "break-through technologies" will be the Space Forces, the Strategic Rocket Forces, the units of permanent readiness and then all the Armed Forces.

According to the minister, his visit to the Volga-Ural military district has shown that "the army is combat-ready and is capable to fulfil the tasks set to it." However, tomorrow other weapons and another army will be needed, and for this reason scientists, designers and the defence complex are ready to offer weapons and technology with an eye to the future, said Sergei Ivanov in the interview he gave to Rossiiskaya Gazeta that was published in its Friday issue, January 31.

The minister assured the newspaper that the system of military education "will not be broken." According to him, the military institutes and academies and also civil higher educational establishments are quite capable to ensure the Armed Forces with specialists, taking into consideration all the tasks, including the new ones.

"The future graduates will command the units manned on a contractual basis, and enlisted men might be much older than officers, and therefore the latter must be taught and prepared for this situation," underscored the Russian Defence Minister.