{"id":60122,"date":"2021-01-11T09:44:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T09:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2021\/01\/11\/russia-analyst-what-are-the-kremlins-priorities-for-2021\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:28:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:28:57","slug":"russia-analyst-what-are-the-kremlins-priorities-for-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/outlook\/2021\/01\/11\/russia-analyst-what-are-the-kremlins-priorities-for-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia analyst: What are the Kremlin\u2019s priorities for 2021?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last year marked the completion of the first Russian military rearmament program since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Overall, this is a major achievement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Russian defense industry<\/a> went into a tailspin in the 1990s, with the downfall of the USSR; and it was only resuscitated, at a basic level, in the 2000s. Thus, the 2010s were its first period of growth since the 1980s. Although the Russian defense industry\u2019s capabilities today are way below those of the Soviet Union, it provides the Russian leadership with a potent instrument of foreign and security policy. The defense industry\u2019s revival has been led by Moscow\u2019s ambition to be recognized again as a great power; the needs of confrontation with the United States; and the multiple security challenges in the Eurasian continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top of the list of the Kremlin\u2019s defense industrial priorities in the past decade has been Russia\u2019s nuclear forces. These have been more thoroughly modernized than any other part of the military. Soviet-vintage missiles are to be completely phased out by 2024. Russia has deployed new intercontinental ballistic missiles: a road-mobile Yars, and a hypersonic<\/a> Avangard. It has a new nuclear-powered, ballistic missile-carrying submarine, Borey-A, with the submarine-launched ballistic missile Bulava<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The air leg of the triad still uses older strategic bombers, like the Tu-160 and Tu-95MS, but the latter is being modernized. Russia has been able to revive its constellation of military satellites that it was in danger of losing. This combined effort has strengthened Russia\u2019s deterrence capabilities, above all vis-a-vis the United States. The fear \u2014 rather strong in the early 2000s \u2014 of the U.S. ballistic missile defenses blunting or even nullifying Moscow\u2019s deterrence is gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Great power ambitions drive the need to modernize the Air Force and the Navy. Since 2015, Russia has been conducting a successful military operation in Syria, for the first time in history not relying on its ground forces. Having secured a long-term lease of an air base and a naval basing point in Syria, Russia has recently reached an agreement with Sudan on a naval facility on the Red Sea. For the first time since the USSR days, Russia has begun building a blue water navy, including a helicopter carrier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has also begun testing a new Circon hypersonic anti-ship missile. The Russian Air Force is about to deploy its first fifth-generation aircraft, the Su-57. Air defenses are being beefed up with capable S-400 Triumf systems. Apart from what is in production and is being deployed, Russia has made significant advances in defense technology, particularly in hypersonic and laser systems as well as robotics.<\/p>\n\n\n\t