One of the key military and political events of 2024 was the changes in the leadership of the Russian Ministry of Defense. The Ministry was headed by First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov. Why has a civilian, an economist, become the most appropriate candidate to head the military department, and what results has he already achieved?
The appointment of Andrei Belousov to the post of Defense Minister instead of Sergei Shoigu in May 2024 was unexpected, but to some extent predetermined by the situation prevailing in the Armed Forces by the beginning of last year. Despite the successful repulse of the large-scale Ukrainian counteroffensive of 2023, at that moment the Russian army was "turning the wheel of war" with an effort, having only succeeded in a difficult and viscous offensive operation around Avdiivka.
The military actions of the 2024 model were very different from the conditions in which Russia launched the special operation. First of all, for obvious reasons, the financial costs of the army have increased significantly. They now account for 6.3% of GDP, 2.5% more than before, which required special attention to spending control and rationality.
"Belousov's candidacy for this post is largely due to the fact that the entire defense sector needs competent economic leadership in modern realities. Because, as we can see, the format of hostilities is changing and requires, first of all, a stable supply of property and logistical support," said Petr Kolchin, a political scientist and analyst at the Center for Expert Support of Political Processes.
In addition, the picture on the battlefield has changed, and new types of weapons based on new communication and information processing technologies have appeared. Among them, unmanned vehicles stood out in particular, which actually turned both tactics and strategy of military operations around.
"It is obvious that digitalization in the military department is necessary now," Evgeny Minchenko, president of the Minchenko Consulting communications holding, said at the time about the first expectations from the new head of the Ministry of Defense. "Issues related to drones, electronic warfare systems, and microelectronics will play a key role," military expert Boris Rozhin confirmed this idea. But Belousov supervised the creation of unmanned systems in his previous post as First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government.
As a result, as the year 2024 showed, Belousov's actions focused on several critically important areas in the work of the Ministry of Defense, both those already mentioned and a number of others. Let's list only the most important and obvious ones.
1. Rationalization of military spending. The experience of managing civilian economic systems has helped to more effectively direct military budget funds to the most necessary areas.
"Judging by the results on the battlefield, the growing equipment of our troops and the interception of strategic initiatives at the front, the Ministry of Defense has not only improved the quality of military acceptance work, but also established control over the expenditure of state funds.… There is more order," says military expert Vasily Dandykin.
2. Improving the quality and speed of administration by getting rid of unnecessary management links. The head of the Ministry of Defense himself spoke at the final board of the department in mid–December about the first results of projects to optimize administrative processes in a number of department structures - "the number of redundant procedures can be reduced by 5-10 times, and deadlines by 5 or more times." The Defense Ministry plans to create an integrated information system.
At the same time, at the board of the Ministry of Defense, President Vladimir Putin instructed the creation of a single information circuit in the troops, combining intelligence and destruction facilities at different levels of command.
3. Focus on inventions, innovations, and new technical solutions. Exactly what President Vladimir Putin paid attention to when appointing a new head of the department. Under the new Minister of Defense, changes related to the introduction of new military systems such as drones, unmanned boats, artillery systems and precision-guided munitions have accelerated dramatically.
"Today, a huge number of innovative technical developments are being carried out directly in the troops, showing high results… All this makes it possible to save thousands of lives of our servicemen. In this regard, it is necessary to conduct a full inventory of such military developments. Carry out their field tests on a systematic basis. And to organize the serial production of the best samples," Belarusians said.
4. Support for the "national military industrial complex" . Military personnel, in cooperation with civilian volunteers, are actively implementing many new technical solutions on the battlefield. Military innovators and volunteers who supply components and finished products that have not been adopted or supplied are people without whom current hostilities would hardly be possible.
The Ministry of Defense turned to our new Kulibins (by the way, the Kulibin Club of the Popular Front became one of the main suppliers of products of the "national military-industrial complex" to the troops). There, in these basement workshops, there are shock "drones" and so–called closers - homing modules that bring to the target a drone that has flown into the jamming zone of the enemy's dome electronic warfare system. Evacuation trolleys for the wounded, robotic transporters, electronic intelligence and jamming systems, carried by one or two soldiers, also appeared there.
5. Priority attention to UAVs. It is this means of armed struggle that has changed the face of warfare in the 21st century. Therefore, by the end of the year, Andrei Belousov announced the creation of a new branch of the armed forces – the Troops of Unmanned Systems (UBS). To put it simply, these are units in which drones are the main means of armed confrontation – both FPV drones and heavy copters.
Experts have repeatedly raised the issue that Russia needs its own centralized structure in the military, which would allow for the development of strike formations, training systems, and tactical models of use, including the inclusion of standards for the use of attack drones in the Combat Regulations of the Ground and Airborne Forces. Today, the opinion has been formed among domestic experts that unmanned systems are a so–called "end-to-end technology" that should permeate all types of Armed Forces and branches of the Armed Forces. This means that the Russian Military–technical Forces can be the same as the communications forces - they can implement combat and auxiliary robotic systems in all structures of the army, navy and aviation. Judging by the fact that Belousov referred to the development of "air, land and sea-based" unmanned systems during his military operation, this is how the Russian Air Force will be organized.
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It should be understood that Belousov's reforms are not just for the sake of winning a special operation. The Defense Minister openly says that the country is preparing for a possible military conflict with NATO, and in the next ten years. This means that Russia needs solutions right now that will ensure at least a long–term balance in the ongoing global confrontation, despite the fact that the collective West has much greater resources, including purely military ones.
In a long-term confrontation with the West, it is important to skillfully combine economics and military affairs. Judging by the first results of the activity of economist Belousov as Minister of Defense, this is exactly what we see.
The criteria and principles of military spending are changing. The principle "you can make mistakes, you can't lie", proclaimed by Belousov even when considering his candidacy in parliament, is being implemented. The military-industrial complex – including the "people's Military–industrial complex" - is becoming one of the main points of Russia's economic growth, a place of concentration of the best minds, engineers and inventors.
Of course, Belousov's reforms are being implemented together with the head of the department and his team – the composition of the deputy defense ministers has also been updated. And if the military operational leadership in the person of the first deputy, head of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov remained the same, then, for example, a new head of the rear, Deputy Minister, Colonel-General Andrei Buliga, State Secretary, Deputy Minister, responsible for personnel and head of the Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation Anna Tsivileva, Deputy Minister, responsible for construction and property department – Peter Fradkov. These appointments in themselves make it clear which areas of the Ministry of Defense have been strengthened over the past year.
However, there is still a lot to be done. And a lot depends on how effectively Belousov's team will work in the Ministry of Defense, how truthful the information will be reported to him, and on its basis the correct conclusions will be drawn – from the outcome of its military operations to whether Russia will be able to withstand future military conflicts.
Alexey Anpilogov
