Russia

Military-Technical and Economic Principles

The military doctrine's treatment of the military-technical and economic foundations of the armed forces--the process of providing and maintaining modern military hardware--is the aspect that shows the greatest gap between policy and reality. The doctrine describes a policy of preserving a military-industrial base capable of manufacturing modern military equipment in quantity. It also describes a ten- to fifteen-year research, development, testing, and evaluation cycle for new weapons. In the mid-1990s, only a very fragmentary commitment to those goals was visible in Russia's assignment of spending priorities (see Structure and Conditions, this ch.). At the very least, defense policy has delayed until after the turn of the century a large share of the acquisition costs and demands on the national industrial base that such a commitment would involve. At that point, a new military doctrine probably will address the issue of technological and economic support.