Russian fleet bereft of future

The only school training warrant officers for nuclear submarines of Russia’s Northern fleet was closed in the northern city of Severodvinsk (the Arkhangelsk region). Graduates of the school always served and do now in practically all of Russia’s fleets. As concerning educational status of the school, it is rated among technical colleges (a technical school). The unique military school was founded on May 30, 1965, dozens of electricians, radio technicians, missile specialists, operators of ship control panels leave the school every year.

Since very founding of the school it has been enjoying an unofficial reputation of Soviet Admiral Sergey Gorshkov’s favorite institution, the one he patronized. The Severodvinsk school was closed for a really common reason, lack of financing namely. Maintenance of a school of this kind (the Severodvinsk school provided high-quality education and training to its graduates) is really very expensive. The naval officials suggested long ago that it would be less expensive to train warrant officers for nuclear subs somewhere away from the subs themselves.

Yesterday the school moved to a military camp not far from Zelenogorsk, near St.Petersburg, where field camps of the St.Petersburg military technical university after Krylov are situated as well. The reality of today’s life of the Russian fleet is that training of specialists for nuclear subs will be conducted in the Baltic Sea, where nuclear submarines do not usually go. Vitaly Bratkov PRAVDA.Ru

In the photo: students of the Severodvinsk school even seem happy leaving for a place near St.Petersburg

Translated by Maria Gousseva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/06/26/43252.html