MOSCOW. Oct 20 (Interfax-AVN) - A national information system to be introduced before 2010 is expected to increase the Navy's combat readiness by 50%-60%, Russian Navy Chief of Staff Admiral Viktor Kravchenko told Interfax-Military News Agency on Sunday.
"A national system of real-time control over the situation in the air, on the surface and underwater will allow the Defense Ministry and navy commanders to observe the situation up to 400 kilometers from Russia's borders, for instance in Kamchatka, right from Moscow, and get in touch with any Russian crew in any part of the world. So far, none of the Russian armed forces' services have an information system of this kind," he said.
"We shall have access to the satellites of any Russian ministry," he added.
The first regional sub-system was tested successfully during large- scale exercises in the Pacific in August 2003, he said.
The new information system is currently being introduced in the Northern Fleet and will then be extended to the Baltic and Black Sea fleets and the Caspian Flotilla, Kravchenko said.