MOSCOW. April 27 (Interfax-AVN) - All higher educational establishments of the Russian Land Forces will reduce the training term of their cadets from five to four years starting from September 2002, Land Forces Commander and Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Kormiltsev said on Saturday.
"We are revising the number of officers that we will enroll in military educational establishments. Responsible departments of the command were analyzing the system of military education in the Land Forces for several months. Their conclusions were not encouraging," Kormiltsev told Interfax-Military News Agency.
"First, there was no system in the staff work until recently, demands of the Land Forces for officers of a certain profile were not calculated properly. Second, there was no order for training and retraining of officers. Third, drain of officers from the Armed Forces as a result of objective and subjective factors was not taken into account," Kormiltsev stressed.
"The Land Forces are in need of artillery officers, specialists in automobiles, signalmen and engineers," the commander said.
"We have revised requirements to training of officers in training units and formations with a goal to boost its quality, we have taken into account experience in the Chechnya campaign. In addition, we have updated range practice and driving courses, as well as some manuals," he added.