KRASNOYARSK. Aug 6 (Interfax) - Robots and unmanned aerial vehicles have evolved into a powerful weapon that has a palpable impact on the hostilities and requires new approaches to the personnel training, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
"Attack drones have emerged. There are lots of them, of various kinds. There are drones operating on a range of thousands of kilometers, instead of just 200 or 300. They carry weapons with an operating range of 500 kilometers, or even longer," Shoigu said at a meeting with the Krasmash workers on Friday.
Robots are another essential factor of warfare, he said.
"We have set up a robotics center because of the appearance of combat robots, which we could see only in the movies, the sci-fi ones, a decade ago. Now this is a new reality," Shoigu said.
New types of weapons requires a significant adjustment of the curriculum in military schools in order to train the relevant personnel, he said.
"We started training specialists to operate unmanned aircraft five years ago. Over that period, drones have evolved into a serious force and a very big threat to the enemy. Of course, that requires different kind of knowledge and different specialists to service, repair and operate this hardware," Shoigu said.
As for robotics, over 300 new programs have been launched to train relevant specialists, and the curriculum has been modified and augmented, he said.
"The same is happening to every other profession in the Armed Forces," Shoigu said.
A thorough analysis of global trends in a particular area helps make preemptive decisions, he said.
"We are monitoring very closely the global trends not only in the fields of science and education but also the development of technologies and what the armies are other countries are using and doing. Of course, we are adjusting our training programs and training new kinds of specialists with due account of the massive and swift digital transformation," Shoigu said.