ROSTOV-ON-DON, November 15 (AVN) - The North Caucasus military district badly needs urgent renovation of its armament, a competent source in the district headquarters told the Military News Agency on Wednesday.
Many types of armament in the district's units have not been renewed for 10 to 15 years, and the armament currently in use is in need of medium and capital repairs, the source said. The state of missile and artillery armament is especially gloomy. More than a half of it has been in operation for over 15 years, and some 60 percent of air defence missile systems were adopted over 20 years ago.
The service life of most armament vehicles in the district is close to expiration and they are, in fact, unfit for use in combat, the source said. The cruising range of 15 percent of tanks is less than that allowed by an order of Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev, while APCs and IFVs are in even worse condition. More than half of IFVs and APCs was adopted by the district's units after taking part in combat operations in Chechnya.
The district command has repeatedly requested renovation of the armament stock from the Defence Ministry. It has also urged its superiors to provide decent financing of armament repairs. However the funds have not been allocated for those purposes so far.