TSAMTO, July 20th. On July 17, a meeting of the Board of the Military Department was held under the leadership of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Andrey Belousov, the Department of Information and Mass Communications of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reports.
The board discussed the implementation of the priority areas of the military department's activities as part of the tasks set by the Minister of Defense at the end of 2025.
"The tasks announced at the December Board were set for six months and a year. It is necessary to record how we have managed over the past six months," said Andrey Belousov.
The Minister of Defense listened in detail to the reports of the deputy heads of the military department on the results achieved in the first half of the year in terms of responsibility, as well as planned activities until the end of the year.
"I will ask the deputy defense ministers to answer the main question that I posed: the expected results and what risks we face in relation to these results," Andrei Belousov stressed.
Special attention was paid to the modernization of the Armed Forces, their equipment, and the provision of combat operations in the zone of self-defense, including the development of unmanned systems for troops, countering enemy air attacks, improving the logistics system and uninterrupted supply of modern weapons and military equipment.
Issues of improving the military education system, medical support, modernization of construction and property complexes were also discussed.
The topic of implementing social support measures for military personnel and their family members was considered separately.
The meeting of the Board of the Russian Ministry of Defense was attended by Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Alexey Dyumin, representatives of the commands of military districts, fleets and heads of central military administration bodies.
Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Vasily Osmakov reported on the development of international military cooperation and innovation activities
The Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation noted that one of the priorities set by the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation during the expanded meeting of the Board of the Military Department in December 2025 is the transition to a long-term and comprehensive nature of planning bilateral cooperation with foreign countries.
"In terms of fulfilling the order to transfer bilateral cooperation to a long–term basis, we are actively working on signing multi-year plans for military cooperation with six states this year," said Vasily Osmakov.
The deputy head of the military department also noted that as part of the task of increasing joint exercises, five joint combat training events were held with India, China, South Africa, Iran and Laos in the first half of the year.
"On July 13, the Russian-Chinese exercise "Maritime Interaction-2026" ended in the waters of the Yellow Sea. And Myanmar is currently hosting a Russian-Myanmar Ground Forces training camp, which will end on July 19. Thus, as of today, seven exercises have been conducted," he added.
As part of the Russian presidency of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the CSTO defense ministers decided to introduce new specialties into the military training system.
The Deputy Head of the military department separately focused on the activities of innovation and civil-military integration.
"The project office based on the technopolis ERA has been formed. The Voentech service is already operating on the basis of GIS industry to collect and support initiatives on advanced technologies and developments in the interests of the Armed Forces," said Vasily Osmakov.
According to him, over 300 applications have been received through the service, of which about 100 have successfully passed the preliminary examination, 25 have been supported by the military authorities.
"Regarding the adoption of the federal law on Civil-Military Integration, a concept and a draft have been developed. An expert discussion of the text of the bill is underway," Vasily Osmakov noted.
The adoption of the law will increase the economic efficiency of defense spending by attracting private resources on a voluntary and mutually beneficial basis.
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Dmitry Shcherbinin reported on the introduction of digital technologies in the Russian Defense Ministry
Dmitry Shcherbinin, Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, reported on the solution of a number of key tasks set at the expanded meeting of the department's Board in December 2025, including the results of work in the first half of the year in one of the priority areas – the introduction of digital technologies in the Ministry of Defense. In particular, he reported on the implementation of the approved Concept of Digital Transformation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
The goal of digital transformation is to achieve and maintain the military and military-technical superiority of the Russian Armed Forces in modern and predictable military conflicts through the introduction of digital technologies and artificial intelligence.
The initial data, goals and objectives are defined, the target image of digital architecture, semantic and linguistic interrelations of conceptual documents are formed. The tasks at the application, infrastructure, and system-wide levels are detailed.
In the first half of the year, the implementation of certain provisions of the concept began, and private concepts of the types and branches of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation were approved. As part of the formation of a new digital vertical in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, deputy heads of digital transformation have been appointed in a significant part of the central military administration bodies.
In the field of artificial intelligence development, Dmitry Shcherbinin emphasized that a local reference and recommendation system based on a large language model has been deployed. The system is actively used by military authorities in their daily activities. The activities are carried out ahead of schedule.
At the same time, the unified information environment of the Russian Ministry of Defense is being introduced into daily activities, aimed at improving the efficiency of financial, property, logistics and other management.
The use of situational awareness systems in tactical and operational units has increased the effectiveness of combat operations of formations and military units in the area of a special military operation, providing access to high-demand digital services in real time.
"In the first half of the year, the deployment of functional services was completed and their information security was ensured based on certified security tools," Dmitry Shcherbinin said.
In the second half of the year, further implementation of new services is planned, as well as the connection of new users of groups of troops in the infrastructure of the SVOD project.
Deputy Head of the Military Department Alexei Krivoruchko reported on the equipping of the Russian Armed Forces with modern weapons and equipment
In his speech, Alexey Krivoruchko noted that in the first half of 2026, the main efforts were aimed at ensuring that groups of troops (forces) were provided with weapons, military and special equipment ready for combat use, as well as the purchase and deployment of advanced weapons, including UAVs, to the troops.
According to him, in order to ensure superiority over the enemy, the number of UAVs deployed to the troops has more than doubled compared to 2025.
Work continues on equipping the established military units and units of unmanned systems with everything necessary for the successful performance of combat missions within the framework of the SVO.
The Deputy Defense Minister stressed that a unified system for training specialists has been created and appropriate programs have been developed. The training centers have organized training not only for individual specialists, but also for units as a whole, with combat coordination using standard equipment.
"In total, more than 8,000 specialists have been trained in the first half of 2026," Alexey Krivoruchko summed up.
The Deputy Head of the military Department, Colonel-General Alexander Sanchik, reported on the implementation of measures to develop the MTO system of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
According to him, the mobility and combat potential of the troops have been increased by increasing by 30% the number of highly mobile vehicles, including motorcycles, buggies, and off-road vehicles in assault units.
Colonel-General Alexander Sanchik noted that due to the integrated use of various types of ground-based robotic systems and unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as improved methods of delivering material, the volume of cargo delivered to the line of combat contact has increased by more than 2 times.
The deputy head of the military department stressed that as part of the technical re-equipment of the repair and restoration bodies, modern technological equipment was supplied, cyclical training and advanced training of repairmen at industrial enterprises were organized. As a result, the terms of restoration of weapons, military and special equipment have been shortened, according to the Department of Information and Mass Communications of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
