Russian Army boosts its combat potential in 2019, defense chief says

The Russian Armed Forces have boosted their combat potential this year, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at the ministry’s conference call on Friday.

"The year 2019 has come to a close. All the tasks defined by the supreme commander-in-chief for this period have been fulfilled. The Armed Forces’ combat capabilities have grown by 14% and the required level of maintaining the country’s defense potential has been ensured," Shoigu stressed.

The ministry’s recent enlarged board meeting discussed in detail the results of the Armed Forces’ activity in 2019, the defense chief noted.

"Today I would like to outline key points. This year, we carried out the troops’ planned rearmament. The share of new and upgraded armament has risen to 68.2% and the proportion of combat-fit hardware has grown to 95%," Shoigu pointed out.

As the defense chief said, "the Armed Forces have increased their preparedness for accomplishing assigned missions."

"This can be clearly evidenced by the results of two surprise comprehensive checks, and also by over 18,500 drills and exercises. The most dimensional of them were the Center-2019 strategic command and staff drills involving seven foreign states of the CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization] and the SCO [Shanghai Cooperation Organization]," Shoigu said.