Moscow. October 7. INTERFAX - Building up the combat capabilities of the Ground Forces in Russia is one of the priorities for the development of the Armed Forces, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
"Since 2019, in accordance with the plan of activity of the Ground Forces, more than 350 events have been carried out. That is, it turns out - one event every three days. One motorized rifle division, four brigades, as well as 27 military units of the army and divisional sets of troops have been formed," Shoigu said at a meeting of the board of the military department on Thursday.
He also noted that the number of contractors in the Ground Forces has increased by more than three thousand.
"The number of contract employees has increased from 144 thousand to 147 thousand. This makes it possible to staff all positions of junior commanders and specialists with professional personnel," the minister said.
As Shoigu noted, in the interests of the Ground Forces, "samples of military equipment have been created that surpass the best foreign analogues in their capabilities." "These are the upgraded T-80BVM and T-90M "Breakthrough-3" tanks, the upgraded infantry fighting vehicle BMP-2 with a combat compartment "bErezhok", the protected vehicle "tYphoon-K"," the head of the Defense Ministry said.
According to him, since 2019, more than 4.5 thousand units of new and modernized weapons and military equipment have been delivered to the Ground Forces. "This allowed us to bring the level of modernity at the beginning of this year to 55.5%. By the end of the year, this figure should exceed 58%," the minister said.
