Russia: September 8, 2000

Archives

  Announcing that Russia cannot afford to maintain the still huge Soviet era armed forces, the government said that the armed forces would lose a third of it's personnel in the next three years. The remaining troops would receive more pay and training. Much equipment would be retired, so that it would be possible to keep the remaining gear war ready. The army would lose 180,000 troops (leaving 170,000), the navy 50,000 (leaving 120,000) and the air force 40,000 (leaving 145,000, plus 100,000 transferred from the Strategic Forces.)  The 480,000 paramilitary border guards and interior ministry troops would also suffer some losses. The armed forces would have about 900,000 troops after all the cuts are complete. Meanwhile, the latest theory on what sank the Kursk comes from a newspaper report that it was a Shipwreck (aka P-700 or Granit) anti-ship missile fired from a Russian cruiser. Since the Kursk was near the surface when she began to sink, this is plausible. The  Shipwreck missile weighs seven tons at launch and carries a 1600 pound warhead. 

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contribute. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   contribute   Close