MOSCOW. Dec 27 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov is generally satisfied with the progress of reforms in the Armed Forces in 2002.
"We did a lot in 2002. First of all, a lot of work was done to optimize the structure, composition and strength of the army and navy," Ivanov told Interfax-Military News Agency on Friday.
"Taking into account the decision to speed up reduction of the Armed Forces, we abolished more than 100,000 positions of servicemen. Other measures were taken in order to adjust the Armed Forces to the nature and level of current and expected threats to Russia's military security, the state's financial and economic capabilities, availability and state of armament and military hardware," the minister said.
In 2002, the Defense Ministry in cooperation with other federal executive bodies drafted a concept of transition to filling military positions with contracted servicemen. "An experiment at facilities of the 76th Guard airborne division in Pskov was launched on September 1 in the framework of that draft," Ivanov noted.
He recalled that his ministry in cooperation with other law- enforcement agencies worked out a program of switching the Armed Forces, other troops and military formations to an international unified standard of technical support. "Implementation of the plan of transition to an interdepartmental unified logistics support system was underway in the Armed Forces, other troops and military formations," he said.
Speaking about combat training, Ivanov said that "this year saw a training voyage of the Caspian Flotilla, and judging from the volume of performed exercises, composition of involved troops, forces, control means and bodies, it was the most serious measure to prepare the military component in nearly all elements of the state's military organization to joint accomplishment of missions."
"A similar training voyage was successfully carried out by the Baltic Fleet," the minister added.