MOSCOW. Nov 18 (Interfax-AVN) - Contemporary combat training of troops does not meet requirements of the modern battlefield, Colonel General Alexander Skorodumov, head of the Russian Armed Forces Combat Training Directorate, said on Thursday.
"The results of the combat training year in the Land Forces and the Navy prove that unfortunately troops combat training does not meet requirements of the modern battlefield, and that in fact troops are not ready to face existing and future threats," Skorodumov told Interfax-Military News Agency.
According to him, it is primarily caused by insufficient funding (only 90 million Russian rubles ($3.15 million) were allocated for combat training in 2004), as well as a considerable deterioration in professional training of officers.
The major problem pertaining to troops training consists in poor methodic training of commanding officers, staff officers, and heads of command and control bodies, he emphasized.
"At the moment in many units regimental commanders are not capable to train battalion commanders, while they in their turn are not capable of training company commanders. Thus, the major principle of commanding officer training is breached," Skorodumov said.
In addition to that, he believes that troops training is affected by too great a centralization of all exercises, as well as by too many demonstration exercises. They are often conducted at the expense of practical training, he said.
"Only 15% of all command post exercises (CPEX) conducted in 2004 received a "good" mark, while the rest of them were assessed as "satisfactory" and "unsatisfactory". The analysis of exercises conducted showed that such exercises followed a standard pattern and did not take into account combat operations in the North Caucasus and emerging environment. The situation deteriorated so much that in October the ASW exercise had to be canceled in the Black Sea Fleet due to material breaches of regulations," Skorodumov noted.
The main objective of combat training in compliance with the purpose of corresponding units and ships has not been reached, while the number of naval exercises, and the flying time, logged by naval aviation, do not meet the requirements of the contemporary battlefield, Skorodumov said.
Commenting on the results of combat training in the Air Force, Skorodumov emphasized that only 50% of crew commanders were ready to discharge combat missions. "At the same time 42% of the Air Force flight personnel are not qualified whatsoever, and only 60% of all pilots meet combat training flight standards," he underlined.