[Dilmah G]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12567043

Eight nuclear submarines, 600 jets and 1,000 helicopters feature in plans to renew Russia's military by 2020, priced at 19tn roubles (£400bn; $650bn).

One hundred warships are also due to be bought in, including two helicopter carriers, in addition to two already being purchased from France.

The submarines will carry the Bulava missile, despite recent test failures.

Analysts say the ambitious programme only makes sense if the military upgrades its training and recruitment.

A painful drive to streamline the armed forces is already under way, with up to 200,000 officers losing their jobs and nine out of every 10 army units disbanded, the Associated Press news agency notes.

If the renewal is a success, it will leave Russia less reliant on the nuclear arsenal it inherited from the USSR.

"Russia needs a professional non-commissioned officer corps to train specialists who can really put these arms to effective use," Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent military analyst, told AP.

"This spending necessitates a whole new kind of military."
Missile defence boost

Last week, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin announced that spending on defence development would triple from 0.5% of GDP to 1.5% from next year.

The defence spending was detailed in Moscow on Thursday by First Deputy Defence Minister Vladimir Popovkin.

"The main task is the modernisation of our armed forces," he said.

Much of the new spending will go on Russia's long under-funded navy. Apart from the submarines, 35 corvettes and 15 frigates will be ordered.

Russia has already ordered two French-built Mistral helicopter carriers, allowing it to rapidly deploy hundreds of troops and dozens of armoured vehicles on foreign soil.

Ten divisions equipped with the new S-500 anti-missile system are set to become the backbone of the country's missile defences.

New aircraft will include Su-34 and Su-35 fighters, and Mi-26 transport and Mi-8 gunship helicopters, AP adds.

Repeated failures of the Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile caused embarrassment for Russia, though two successful tests were reportedly conducted last year.

Interested to see how this will turn out. Perhaps MW:2's becoming more likely?

[General Battuta]

Apparently the Russian army is all about gay prostitution. And a lot of rape. Kinda ****ed up.

[Dilmah G]

Haven't heard about the gay prostitution part. :\ A mate of mine's dad was a Russian Army conscript, apparently he hated most of his time there with a lot of his friends being beaten up by SNCOs/each other and such. He did once tell this funny story about him crashing a truck that he wasn't meant to be driving and then legging it before he got caught, though.

[General Battuta]

http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/15-02-2007/87441-army_prostitute-0/

[Dilmah G]

That's disgusting.

[Snail]

http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/15-02-2007/87441-army_prostitute-0/

****

[SpardaSon21]

Crap like that happens in NATO bases, too.  My brother-in-law came back from Afghanistan in January, and on the base he served at the Romanians were known as the Rapists because there had been several male-on-male rapes in their area.

[Nemesis6]

Well, this is coming from the army that still employs the grandfather system -- New recruits are beaten, mistreated, and tortured in every possible way by the higher-ranking ones. New recruits are "ghosts", who can themselves become "grandfathers", and then continue the cycle of violence. The Russians deny it, but this is how their military works in practice. So male prostitution -- Not a big surprise.

[NGTM-1R]

The Russian military does not have NCOs as a Westerner would understand the term. Their small-unit operational skills and discipline are thus greatly compromised, and complex technical tasks must be closely supervised or directly carried out by commissioned officers. It's an ugly system.

[newman]

It's not Soviet anymore.. but interesting info.

[Nuclear1]

It's not Soviet anymore.. but interesting info.

In Soviet Russia, name changes COUNTRY!

[General Battuta]

Interesting, apparently more men than women suffer rape in the US military, and rape is considered to be rampant for the women.

Unhappy.

EDIT: wonder how the rates compare with a demographically matched sample though

[Dilmah G]

Do you have a link? I'm curious as to where the sample comes from. And whether it's adjusted for people crying 'rape!' (which happens more than one would think, I've read).

[achtung]

And whether it's adjusted for people crying 'rape!' (which happens more than one would think, I've read).

The likelihood of that happening too much in the U.S. military sounds... low to me. Who would want to claim they were raped by the same sex in an organization that, at times, is VERY homophobic?

[General Battuta]

Do you have a link? I'm curious as to where the sample comes from. And whether it's adjusted for people crying 'rape!' (which happens more than one would think, I've read).

If anything the opposite problem is true, the underreport rate (as typical with rape) is enormous.

[General Battuta]

The Veteran's Affairs PTSD site is a good resource, and the Pentagon suggests that most rapes go unreported, with only a fraction of those that are reported ever being prosecuted (something like 3% compared to 40% in the civilian world.)

It's not a surprise rape culture is so strong but hopefully it'll improve with time. The fact that female soldiers are dying of dehydration because they don't want to have to go to the porta-potties at night is pretty bad.

[Dilmah G]

Fair enough. I'm surprised at that last one still occurring, though.

[IceFire]

Does anyone know what aircraft the Russians are purchasing? Is the Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA part of that purchase? What else are they buying... updated MiG-29 models and the Su-35?

[NGTM-1R]

Does anyone know what aircraft the Russians are purchasing? Is the Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA part of that purchase? What else are they buying... updated MiG-29 models and the Su-35?

No word on the Pak-Fa.  I just see Su-27 upgrades on the list.