Official website of the President of Russia

Документ   /

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues.

We continue working, and today we will be discussing the provision of new control systems to the armed forces, primarily strategic nuclear weapons control systems.

It is absolutely clear that the combat capability of the nuclear triad, and the capability of the army and navy on the whole to adequately and quickly respond to potential military challenges directly depend on the stability, effectiveness and reliability of these systems under any circumstances.

I would like to point out that a great deal has been done during the past few years to maintain all the command elements of our strategic nuclear forces at the highest possible level.

In particular, the stationary and mobile command posts have been seriously upgraded, and their analytical and operational capabilities have been expanded, including in terms of information support, monitoring and situation analysis. The quality of such a vital characteristic as interference resistance has been improved.

As of now, all command posts can receive comprehensive updates in real time and use them to assess the situation and make substantiated decisions.

It is important that all equipment, hardware and communication systems of the nuclear forces control systems are regularly upgraded yet remain as simple and reliable as a Kalashnikov rifle, and that their modernisation is based on the latest national technology and engineering solutions.

Colleagues, I would like to focus on the following aspects.

First of all, we need to work seriously to boost the survivability of the control systems. We all realise this, and we are aware that a lot depends on the survivability of these systems and their ability to continue operating in a combat environment. In fact, we have to guarantee this even in the event of a nuclear strike.

They have told me that the creation of an absolutely secure facility for controlling strategic nuclear forces, among others. is nearing completion, and that it will have a very high safety margin. Let us discuss this today, too.

Secondly, we should constantly check the efficiency of the main components of the systems for controlling strategic nuclear forces during command post exercises and other events, including unexpected challenge inspections for assessing the triad’s combat readiness that have already become regular.

Thirdly, we have to continue developing advanced systems for controlling strategic forces. What we are talking about is that we are doing the right things today, and these systems are in a good state. However, no matter how modern and advanced they may be today, we cannot remain idle, and we all realise this. We need to think about what happens tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Please report on long-term working plans in this field at this meeting.

Let us get down to work.

<…>