Military Personnel - End Strength
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced on 21 December 2023, at the final meeting of the Ministry of Defense. an increase in the number of personnel of the Russian Armed Forces to 1.5 million people, including 695 thousand contract soldiers. President Vladimir Putin signed a decree 25 August 2022 to increase the number of military personnel by 137,000 to 1,150,628. "Establish the number of the armed forces of the Russian Federation in the amount of 2,039,758, including 1,150,628 military personnel," the decree read. The previous decree, dated November 17, 2017, said that the number of soldiers should reach 1,013,628.
Kyiv’s Chief of Defense Intelligence said 10 September 2023 the Russian war against Ukraine will not be a protracted one, and his agency reported that Moscow amassed over 420,000 troops in the occupied Ukrainian territories. “I don't endorse the assumption that this will be a long war. This is my personal opinion, based on the analysis of the data we have, first of all, concerning the enemy,” Kyrylo Budanov said according to Interfax-Ukraine. He said that the Russians are incapable of conducting protracted operations and added: “The professional army in the general sense ended last fall, they fight mobilized. This is also an obvious fact. Production of new types of weapons and equipment is insufficient. What they declare and try to show is not true,” according to Interfax-Ukraine.
Vadym Skibitskyi, Deputy Chief of the Defense Intelligence said that Russia “amassed over 420,000 troops in our temporarily occupied territories and on the Crimean Peninsula. This is, if we do not take into account the Russian Guard, other structures, special units, power structures of the Russian Federation, which ensure the occupying power in our territorie.” He added: “That's apart from the Russian National Guard, other bodies, special units, and the Russian security forces that support the occupying power in our territories.”
As of January 2017, the number of people working for the Russian military totaled 1,897,694, including 1,013,000 active servicemen and women. The number of Russia’s military personnel will rise by 19,000, increasing the total to more than 1.9 million by July 1, according to a decree signed 30 March 2017 by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Of the additional 19,000 employees, 13,698 will be active military servicemen and 5,357 will be civilian workers.
Russia has tried to professionalize its force by investing in contracted soldiers (volunteers). The majority of Russia’s military consists of conscripts drafted for 1 year service periods. By the time these conscripts receive training and are sent to a unit, they may only have 6-8 months left before being demobilized. This severely limits the quality of the average Russian soldier and unit as a whole. Professional soldiers inherently have more experience and training than the 1 year conscripts that circulate out of the formations every 6 months.
During the Soviet period, the Soviet Army relied heavily on its Officer Corps, since officers were educated and were the continuity in the force. Soldiers consisted of conscripts who would rotate out every 2 or 3 years. The rank of sergeant did not have much authority or meaning until the restructure of Russian Ground forces post Georgian War. Currently, Russia is attempting to boost its NCO corps. In the absence of able junior leadership, most duties are left to junior officer. Some of the basic duties normally overseen by NCOs in western armies must be inspected by the officer of the unit.
According to the War Department, by the end of 2016 the armed forces personnel manning was 93% - 930,000 people. Of these, 384,000 were soldiers and sergeants on contract, 270,000 were conscripts, and 225,000 were officers. There was a shortage of at least 50,000 men. This figure accounts for soldiers and sergeants on contract, the number of which in 2017 should be 425,000.
New Look reforms aimed at a force structure of one million personnel, but as of the end of 2016, there were only 930,000 uniformed billets. Galeotti contended that the military reached its staffing goal of 425,000 professional service members ahead of its 2017 deadline, with 427,000 in 2016. This is from total force he estimates to be 760,000, of which the Ground Forces comprise 230,000. He assessed that the Ground Forces have 130,000 professionals. Sutyagin provides a less-optimistic assessment, estimating that the Ground Forces are 19 percent below their 243,500 personnel end-strength. Herspring, with the bleakest estimate, assesses the total force to be 23 percent below end-strength.
According to official data, the strength of the Russian Armed Forces was estimated in 2012 at 774,500 personnel, including 220,000 officers and about 200,000 contracted soldiers. The military needed to recruit about 300,000 men during each annual draft to keep the number of personnel at the required level of 1 million.
The Defense Ministry planned in July 2015 to cut nearly 17,000 military and about 30,000 civilian personnel due to the construction of new ammunition stockpiles. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported that the agency planned in 2015 to build more than 450 ammunition storage facilities and thus complete the arrangement of 13 modern arsenals. According to him, the establishment of new stockpiles will be fully completed later in the year. "Declined by almost 17 thousand soldiers who are now in storage and nearly 30,000 civilian personnel", - he said. The new arsenals move all missile and artillery weapons, said the representative of the Ministry of Defense. "That is, we remove from the open areas," - he explained.
Russian President Vladimir Putin established the full strength of the Armed Forces at 1.88 million units, including 1 million personnel, a presidential decree published 08 July 2016 stated. The order entered into force from the date of its signing. "Set the strength of the Russian Armed Forces in the amount of 1,885,371 units, including 1,000,000 military personnel," the decree read.
"If earlier the majority of complaints concerned delay or exemption from conscription, but now most of the conscripts concerned issues of military service for specific types and combat arms of the Armed Forces," according to Chief of the Main Organization and Mobilization Directorate (Mobilization) General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Colonel-General Vasily Tonkoshkurov, speaking 31 March 2016. First of all, young people want to serve in the Airborne Forces, Special Forces and Marine Corps, as well as in scientific and industrial battalions, said Tonkoshkurov. "In addition, many recruits from among the recognized unfit for service for health care the question of how to pass military service", - said Head of Mobilization. Taking into account the wishes and to adapt to military service before being drafted in the autumn of 2015 began an experiment on combined arms and airborne training recruits on the basis of three military units Airborne and four regional organizations DOSAAF Russia, recalled Tonkoshkurov.
A draft law on the abolition of the age limit for those wishing to conclude the first contract for military service has been submitted to the State Duma 20 May 2022. The authors of the initiative noted that the use of high-precision weapons and the operation of military equipment requires highly professional specialists, and servicemen become them by the age of 40-45. According to experts, the abolition of the age limit for concluding a contract will make it possible to equip the army with specialists with extensive experience.
United Russia deputies Andrei Kartapolov and Andrei Krasov submitted to the State Duma a bill to abolish the age limit for those wishing to conclude the first contract for military service. Amendments are proposed to be made to the federal law "On military duty and military service." The State Duma recalled that at present, Russians aged 18 to 40 and foreign citizens aged 18 to 30 can conclude such a contract. The authors of the initiative propose to exclude from the law the current age limit for citizens of working age to conclude a contract.
“For the use of high-precision weapons, the operation of weapons and military equipment, highly professional specialists are needed. Experience shows that they become such by the age of 40-45, ”the explanatory note said. In addition, according to the authors of the bill, the changes will allow recruiting specialists in popular specialties, in particular in the areas of medical support, engineering departments, maintenance, operation, communications and others.
Military expert Viktor Litovkin, in a conversation with RT, noted that the initiative will make it possible to recruit specialists with extensive experience and knowledge, "high-level professionals for maintenance and work on high-tech equipment," to serve in the armed forces. “All those systems that require deep knowledge and experience, which cannot be obtained from a person 20-25 years old, because he does not have such experience, knowledge and ability to work on this equipment. Moreover, the equipment also requires higher specialized education. And when it becomes possible to receive such people, this will strengthen the armed forces, ”the specialist said.
A similar opinion was expressed by Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine. “I support this decision, it is correct and justified. It will allow attracting the most trained specialists to the contract service, including for the operation of complex weapons systems, ”the expert explained.
Attracting specialists to the military industry directly to solve specific problems is of a strategic nature and is part of Russia's national security, said Nikita Danyuk, deputy director of the RUDN Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts, in an interview with RT. "The abolition of the age limit for concluding this contract will make it possible to equip our army and our military departments with those specialists who have extensive experience and who now, solely by virtue of this paragraph of the law, cannot benefit our defense capability. Under the current conditions, it is necessary to radically revise the legislation so that people can work for our defense as quickly and efficiently as possible, ”said the analyst.
In November 2021, Russian leader Vladimir Putin signed a law allowing the president to increase the age limit for military service for marshals, generals of the army and admirals of the fleet by decision of the president. Changes were made to Art. 49 of the federal law "On military duty and military service". Prior to the signing of the law by the President, the age limit for military service for persons with the specified military ranks was 65 years. They can now enter into a new contract until they reach the age of 70.
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