#8
Izvestia
February 21, 2002
EXCHANGING A SOLDIER FOR A COMPUTER
The Russian armed forces need better maps and better administration
Author: Dmitry Safonov
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]

THE DEFENSE MINISTRY BOARD HAS DISCUSSED ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE ARMED FORCES, AND SUPPLYING THE MILITARY WITH VITAL TOPOGRAPHIC AND GEODESIC RESOURCES. THIS WOULD GREATLY INCREASE THE EFFICIENCY OF THE ARMY AND SUCCESS OF MILITARY OPERATIONS.

A Defense Ministry board meeting took place yesterday, chaired by Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov. It was devoted to prospects for developing the management system in the Armed Forces, and types and branches of troops. A separate topic for discussion was topographic- geodesic resources (cartography, navigation, intelligence, etc.) for the army and the navy, and what kind of new information technology may be required.

The most important item on the agenda was not new for the military. Administration issues have always been important for the Defense Ministry, especially during the military reforms, aimed at optimizing the armed forces. Within the past year the Defense Ministry has set up a new branch of the military - the Space Forces, merging the military-space forces and anti-missile defense forces. Before that, these units were parts of the Strategic Missile Forces. Apart from that, several military districts have been merged into two new ones: the Trans-Volga-Ural and the Siberian districts. In the course of this process not only the headquarters changed their location, but also other infrastructure, as well as the system of monitoring the subordinate troops.

That is why, according to the Defense Ministry, work on organizational and technical improvement of the monitoring system is now viewed as the primary task.

The second issue - topographic-geodesic resources - is more complicated. The anti-terrorist operation in Chechnya has shown that the Russian army lacks good topographic maps of the region where it is fighting. The existing maps were made in Soviet times, and have nothing to do with reality.

The air force and navy have similar problems: pilots and captains need to know for certain where they are, instead of figuring out their location (as they do it now) using methods dating back to the time of Columbus. The same problem is connected with high-precision weapons. We do have such weapons, but we cannot aim them. The Americans do this via satellites, but specially trained soldiers do the job in Russia.

According to the Defense Ministry, we can increase the effectiveness of military operations and modern weapons and vehicles only by improving the electronic resoures which make up the automated system of battle control. In the Air Force effectiveness could be improved by 15%, in the Army by 25%, and in the Navy by almost one- third.

(Translated by Daria Brunova)

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