MOSCOW. Oct 24 (Interfax-AVN) - Due to limited financing the Land Forces enhance combat potential of their groupings primarily at the expense of modernising and extending service life of their hardware, Land Forces Commander and Deputy Defence Minister Nikolai Kormiltsev said on Wednesday.
"Speaking about the total amount of the Land Forces armament, it is enough even for the case of combat deployment," Kormiltsev told Interfax-Military News Agency.
The troops are maintaining their tank units by means of modernising serial T-72 and T-80 tanks and designing a new tank. Modernisation of infantry fighting vehicles, such as the BMP-1, BMP-2 and BMP-3, aims to enhance efficiency of their armament, increase their protection level and reliability.
"The artillery with its quite high lethal capacities will use them in full thanks to addition of up-to-date technical intelligence means. It will bring about an increase in the level of combat capacities realisation from current 40-50 percent to 90 percent," Kormiltsev said.
"Fitting of the missile troops and artillery with automatic control systems in addition to intelligence means will soon allow the military to solve the problem of intelligence, control and killing systems organisation. As a result, a single unifiedl intelligence and firing system will be established," the commander stressed.
Speaking about the main directions of Land Forces hardware improvement, Kormiltsev singled out a set of requirements that define the shape of hardware designed in the interests of the Land Forces.
In particular, designers aim to enhance ammunition range, precision and efficiency, to increase the number of shots, hits and emergements produced by attack and firing means in a certain period of time, and to expand the weapon's combat application flexibility, mobility, survivability, reliability and counter-jamming capability.
Designers are working to decrease the military equipment's unmasking factors, and to universalise it on the principles of modular application and strict unification of armament. "Priority is also given to providing servicemen with more effective individual means of combat, communication and protection, improving ergonomic characteristic of armament and military equipment," Kormiltsev said.
The commander said he was sure that weapons modernisation and troops refit would be implemented in full and in the period of time fixed by the Armed Forces Restructuring Plan.