Putin Orders the Use of AI Weapons in Combat Training

At the annual expanded meeting of the Defence Ministry Board, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, gave instructions to actively include weapons and equipment with AI elements in combat training.

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This annual meeting aims at analysing the performance of the Russian Ministry of Defence Ministry and identify priorities for the further development of the Armed Forces.

Modern Weapons and Equipment in the Russian Military

"As of mid-December 2020, the share of modern weapons and equipment in the Russian military is over 70% for the general-purpose forces and 86% for the nuclear forces," said President Putin.

"Therefore, our Army and, most importantly, our nuclear triad have reached the level that guarantees Russia’s security."

President Putin set a goal for 2021 for the Russian nuclear deterrent forces, he said that the level of modern weapons must reach 88.3%, and that the general-purpose forces should reach almost a level of 76% by 2024.

2020 Exercises and Drills

"Russian troops have shown high combat readiness and the ability to effectively fulfill complex and non-standard tasks in more than 5,700 exercises and drills at various levels, including the large-scale Caucasus-2020 exercise involving military contingents from five other countries."

Arms Control

"Unfortunately, the arms control system continues to deteriorate. Under contrived pretexts, the United States has already withdrawn from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, the INF Treaty and the Open Skies Treaty. There is uncertainty with regard to the New START which, as you know, will expire in February 2021. We have repeatedly stated our readiness to extend the treaty but there has been no response."

Instructions

In his address, Putin gave instructions to to focus on the following key tasks:

Maintaining Russia's nuclear weapons in high combat readiness and develop all components of the nuclear triad.

"This is of fundamental importance to ensure our national security and preserve strategic parity in the world," he commented, "our approaches in this area are strictly defensive and set forth in the 2020 document On the Principles of State Nuclear Deterrence Policy of the Russian Federation."

Consolidating the potential of the non-nuclear deterrent capability, primarily high-precision weapons.

"We do not intend to produce and deploy medium- and shorter-range missiles in the European part of Russia or in other areas of the country, for that matter. However, we must be ready to respond in a timely manner to the Western countries’ deployment of counterpart missiles near our borders."

Reequipping the Army and the Navy with modern weapons and hardware.

"In other words, the assignments of the state defence order must be fulfilled strictly on time. Let me add that the Defence Ministry and defence enterprises must review the question of signing long-term contracts on all the main types of weapons. At the same time it is necessary to absolutely rule out unjustified increases in the costs of orders, use rational pricing procedures."

Introducing new forms and methods of combat action for the technical modernisation of the Army and the Navy.

"It is necessary to develop military science for this purpose. It is not enough just to study the experience of current armed conflicts and local wars. It is also essential to make forecasts for the future, in part, to take into consideration the appearance of weapons based on new physical principles in the armies of some Western countries. We know this and are working on it, but we must constantly keep our attention focused on it."

Including more active use of weapons and equipment with AI elements in combat training.

"Including robotic vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles, and automated control and command systems. Such weapons can increase the combat capability of units several times over and will largely determine the outcome of hostilities today and in the near future. In addition, new approaches to using the Union State’s regional group must be tested during the upcoming Zapad 2021 (West) exercises."

Putin noted that observers will be invited to watch these exercise- " Let them watch: we are open in this sense."

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