Paul
Goble
Staunton, May 7 – Western sanctions
are hitting one segment of the Russian military-industrial complex particularly
hard – the refitting of old and the construction of new naval vessels –
something that meant the Russian fleet was dangerously overextended during its
Syrian operation, according to Sergey Ishchenko.
The Russian military commentator
says that Russian yards have not been able to find substitutes for
German-produced diesel engines – the Chinese ones are not easily adapted to
Russian needs – and thus there have been significant delays in the refitting
and construction of naval vessels (svpressa.ru/war21/article/199557/).
This sanctions-created bottleneck is
being exacerbated by longstanding problems in the Russian yards, he and other
experts say, and by Moscow’s current commitment to developing small rather than
large firms. Only the latter, these experts say, are capable of producing what
is needed for major projects.
Ishchenko points out that these
conclusions are on the basis of indirect evidence given that most of these ship-building
and naval issues are classified, but he points out that commanders have complained
about many of these problems and in this article documents delays in many of
the most important refitting and construction programs.
“Do our admirals
understand the existing situation?” the analyst asks rhetorically. “Naturally,
they do and much better than you or I. But the existing situation with the
fleet doesn’t leave them with a choice” but to obey orders even if that
requires that they push ships beyond their capacity and have to do with fewer
ships than they need.
This is not the only indication of
bottlenecks in the Russian military. Minister Sergey Shoygu issued an order
that the only city were the Russian air force would overfly May 9th
parades is Moscow. All others will have to do without. Analysts say that this
reflects both a shortage of planes and a shortage of pilots (vn.ru/news-vozdushnogo-parada-ne-budet-9-maya-2018-v-novosibirske-/
and el-murid.livejournal.com/3794727.html).
No comments:
Post a Comment