#13
BBC Monitoring
Russian army reform should draw on Gulf war lessons - expert
Source: Interfax-AVN military news agency web site, Moscow, in English 1112 gmt 10 Apr 03

Moscow, 10 April: The Russian army should immediately draw lessons from the Gulf War, head of the Centre for Problems of Strategic Nuclear Forces, Vladimir Dvorkin, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Thursday [10 April].

"The latest war in the Gulf is instructive from the military point of view, in particular, for the Russian army. A key conclusion that we should draw is that the obsolete structure of the Russian armed forces must be changed," Dvorkin said.

The immediate establishment of a united command for rapid reaction forces and a united command for strategic transport should be the first step, he noted.

"We have no rapid reaction forces. They may be formed on the basis of the Airborne Troops command and incorporate extra aviation, armour and the like. The Airborne Troops are an arm of the service. Yet it is not arms of the service or services that engage in combat, but combined groups of various forces, among them the navy, aviation and the land troops. Thus, we need a united command of such forces, and a transport command," Dvorkin said.

The strategic transport command must plan beforehand all transportation scenarios and adapt timely to the changing situation, he said.

"A certain share of military transport aviation must be directly subordinate to the united command of the rapid reaction forces to match the forces' needs. The strategic transport command must coordinate transportation by all means of transport - aircraft, railways, sea ships, and automobiles," Dvorkin noted.

The second conclusion that Russia should draw is that the gap in equipment of the Russian armed forces must be prevented from growing further.

"It is necessary to focus our attention on key technologies, because we cannot try to stop this gap from growing in all spheres, let alone try to bridge it," the expert stressed.

According to him, priority should be given to development of integrated means of intelligence, communication and control and precision-guided weapons.

"This is a long-term programme, but we have a pause as Russia does not have real enemies at the moment and unlikely to get some in the immediate future. These threats may emerge in the remote future as it is impossible to forecast the military-political situation, and we must be ready for them," Dvorkin concluded.

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