A government commission has considered an initiative allowing test pilots to be awarded a rank one star higher than their position. Thus, pilots-lieutenant colonels with special merits will be able to become colonels. The current rules allow you to give "extra" stars to officers only up to and including the rank of major.
Vladimir Gruzdev, Chairman of the Board of the Association of Lawyers of Russia, noted that the draft law aims to increase the motivation of young pilot officers to serve as test pilots.
"It is proposed to amend the law "On Military Duty and Military Service", allowing test pilots to be assigned a rank one step above their position up to colonel," Vladimir Gruzdev said.
He stressed that today the law allows military personnel to be assigned a rank higher than their current position only up to and including major. Thus, if a person holds a position that, according to the state, provides for the rank of major, he can no longer be awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel.
"Meanwhile, officers who have the qualifications of a test pilot of the first class are in the full sense highly valued specialists. According to the established standards, the training of one test pilot to the level of the first class is at least ten years. The material costs of training one first-class test pilot amount to at least 700 million rubles," explained the Chairman of the AYUR Board.
However, after reaching the job ceiling and earning a pension, many pilots quit and go to work in civilian enterprises. In addition, many test pilots of the State Flight Test Center of the Ministry of Defense are representatives of the state customer at all stages of state tests.
At the same time, pilots with the rank of major, even those qualified as a first-class test pilot, do not have a sufficient level of authority when interacting with enterprises, including working independently at their bases and communicating with managers.
"This situation reduces the effectiveness of the work carried out and does not exactly increase the motivation of experienced pilots to continue serving in flight positions. The bill provides for the possibility to assign a military rank one step higher than the position held, but not higher than the military rank of colonel, for special personal merits to a test pilot of the first class," Vladimir Gruzdev summed up.
Vladislav Kulikov
