MURMASHI AIRFIELD, Murmansk Region. July 25 (Interfax-AVN) - The experience of the war in Chechnya has prompted a revision of combat training priorities in Russia's Armed Forces.
"The experience of the Chechnya campaigns has made us revise the priorities of combat training. Operations conducted by small units - companies, special-task units and battalion-size task forces as a maximum - have turned out to be most effective," Ivanov told journalists in the Murmansk region on Friday.
He specified that "even battalion-size task forces are too large and immobile. All this requires to change the approach toward equipment, liaison, control and tactics."
Asked about the type of war the Russian army needs to prepare for, the minister noted that "as the military, we have to be ready for everything. However, the possibility of a war involving fronts and armies is very small. But this does not mean that we should forget about it and do nothing. If we assume this approach, the possibility of this war will increase, not lessen," he said.
"As for local conflicts of various intensity, including guerilla, terrorist and rebel actions, modern history shows that the possibility of such conflicts is very high. This is what is happening all over the world now," Ivanov noted.