Russian President Putin personally issued an order requiring the military production department to fully power, increase the output of military equipment and improve its technical performance. This also indirectly reflects that in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war lasting for 9 months, the Russian army faced a holistic demand that war machines needed to operate with all their strength to get a certain degree of satisfaction.
Picture Note: Putin attended a video conference
According to URA and other Russian media reports, Putin recently attended an online meeting of the Russian Government Coordination Committee. During the meeting, Putin pointed out that the committee was established to solve the problem of cooperation among various departments and ensure that the Russian troops on the Ukrainian front were sufficient. There are two key tasks of the rear military system now: one is to increase the supply of various types of weapons and equipment, and the other is to improve the performance of these weapons and equipment. Therefore, scientific researchers and manufacturers at the rear must communicate directly with frontline users and understand the needs of frontlines.
Putin's series of instructions is undoubtedly related to Russia's huge losses in this war. According to data given by Ukraine, since the war started at the end of February, Russia has lost about 2,900 tanks , 5,800 armored vehicles , 1,800 artillery , nearly 400 rocket launchers , more than 270 fixed-wing fighters, more than 260 helicopters, 16 ships , and a large number of air defense missiles and other other equipment. Although the data given by Ukraine must have an exaggeration, even if this data is divided by two, the Russian army's losses will not be small. With only the equipment lost by the Russian army, all the troops of many countries can be re-armed.
Figure Note: Ukraine gave the Russian military equipment loss data
Take tanks as an example. Although the outside world has always said that Russia has 12,000 tanks, which is the country with the largest number of tanks in the world, these 12,000 vehicles are included in all the tanks in Russia. According to Western estimates, before the war began, there were about 3,300 tanks in service in the Russian army.
Therefore, even if most of the tanks were lost in the war, the sealing of tens of thousands of vehicles could still meet some of the needs of the Russian army.
Of course, since most of these tanks are old goods left over from the Soviet era and are generally in poor condition, even after renovation, their adaptability to the battlefield is weaker than the previous models. In addition, judging from the fact that the Russian side has started to modify the T-62 tank , there should be not many T-72 and T-80 tank in the Russian army's inventory. It can be seen from this that for the Russian side, it is urgent to produce new equipment.
Picture Note: Before the war, the Russian tank troops were T72, T80, and T90 mixed-installed
In addition to the large losses and the factory needs to operate at full capacity, Putin's order this time also reflects that the Russian front-line troops are now urgently in need of equipment that is more in line with the needs of the battlefield. And this cannot help but talk about Russia's previous series of weapons policies. Since the collapse of , the Russian economy has been in a bad state after was , and the Russian army has not received much military expenditure. In 2021, Russia's military expenditure was US$65.9 billion, less than one-tenth of the US military's military expenditure in the same year. Under this circumstance, the Russian army can only slowly advance the modernization and upgrade of equipment and focus on strategic nuclear weapons.
According to the 2018-2025 national arms plan released by Russia in 2017, by 2020, the importance of modern equipment in the Russian army will increase from 60% in 2017 to 70%, and it is clearly stated that the focus of future development is high-precision strike weapons and strategic nuclear forces. But by the end of 2018, Russian Defense Minister Shoigu said that the proportion of Russian military's modern equipment increased to 61.5%. In other words, in a year, the proportion of Russian military's modern equipment has increased by only 1.5 percentage points.
Picture Note: Russian Defense Minister Shoigu
It can be seen from this that before the war began, the proportion of modern equipment in the Russian army had just reached about 70%. This is the average data of the entire army. The equipment modernization level of the Russian Army, VDV and some naval infantry units that are fighting on the front line may not reach this number.This makes Russian troops often be beaten to the point of confusion when facing the Ukrainian army with a variety of Western aid weapons. After all, the West not only gave Ukraine Leopard 1 Tank and other Cold War equipment, but also gave a lot of new weapons such as Himas .
Judging from the current situation, under the pressure of war, Russia's weapons production ideas have changed. The previously announced national arms plan has been suspended. The government coordination committee led by Russian Prime Minister m Shuskin is now taking on the task of coordinating the entire logistics system. According to Putin's ideas, Russia's logistics support system is undergoing a comprehensive transformation towards a wartime model, and all types of equipment must be improved immediately according to the needs of the frontline.
Picture Note: Russian weapons manufacturer
But this may not be a good thing for the long-term development of Russian weapons. After all, under the guidance of this idea, the scientific research department will focus its main energy on improving existing weapons. The development of next-generation weapons will inevitably not be affected, and it will even be forced to temporarily stop. This will affect Russia's overall weapon development process.
But under the current battlefield situation, the Putin government no longer cares about what the future will be like. After all, the Russian-Ukraine war has entered the stage of attrition. Who will eventually win the battle? In fact, it depends on which logistics system of Russia and Ukraine cannot withstand the pressure first.
