Lieutenant General Oleg Kosenkov, Head of the Main Directorate of the Railway Troops of the Russian Armed Forces, spoke about the participation in the ARMY 2020 International Military and Technical Forum
Starting in 2015, the Railway Troops participated in all ARMY International Military and Technical Forum. How did participation in the Forums affect the rearmament of troops?
The congress and exhibition centre is an ideal platform where there is close interaction with industrial enterprises, and within the framework of the Forum, the practice of interaction between potential consumers and suppliers is optimally organized. The congress and exhibition events are attended mainly by top officials from enterprises, defence industry organizations, and industrial enterprises. Communication with them allows you to make significant decisions and, as a result, develop further progressive movement to change the quality component of the technical support of the Railway Troops.
The equipment of the Railway Troops with new models of modern high-performance equipment continued with all these years, with the prospect of reaching a new innovative look by 2020. If in 2015 the share of modern equipment in the Railway Troops was less than 20%, then by 2019 it increased to 49%.
In the scientific and business programs of the past Forums, you constantly included the development of the technology of the Railway Troops in the subject of the Round Tables. And what are the results in this area today?
One of the directions for the development of the Railway Troops in the medium term is to solve the problems of modernizing weapons, military and special equipment, creating scientific, technical, design and production reserves, performing research and development efforts aimed at creating a new unified, standardized, highly effective weapons systems and reconditioning equipment for the re-equipment of formations and military units.
Thanks to a number of decisions made at the Round Tables, the result of the work of the Main Directorate of the Head of the Railway Troops, together with the Scientific Research and Testing Centre of special equipment of the Railway Troops, was the adoption of eight railway vehicles and military equipment from 2015.
At present, the Centre’s team’s primary task is to modernize the NZhM-56 floating railway bridge, developed in the middle of the 20th century. This work will significantly reduce its deployment time, and thereby provide reliable cover for railway facilities in the area of responsibility of the Railway Troops.
What do you intend to discuss at the round table this time?
And this year, the theme of the Round Table was related to the further modernization of the Railway Troops equipment “Actual Issues of the Development and Use of Technical Arms of the Railway Troops”.
The round table will be attended by specialists from the Research Institutes of the Russian Ministry of Defence, the Military Institute (Railway Troops), Military Academy of Combat Service Support named after General of the Army Khrulev, Moscow State University of Railway Engineering, heads of departments of the railway troops of the military districts, heads and specialists of industrial enterprises.
What new models of equipment will visitors of the exhibition see this year at the Congress and Exhibition Centre?
The use of new types of equipment and engineering weapons will minimize manual labor and increase the productivity of a pile of servicemen of railway workers.
What contribution to the history of the country during the five-year period did the Railway troops make?
The main contribution of the Railway Troops to strengthening the country's defence capability and state security is the participation of troops in the development of transport infrastructure throughout the Russian Federation.
Carry out repair of non-public access railway tracks at the facilities of the Ministry of Defence. In the period from 2015 to 2019, the railway tracks at 400 facilities with a total volume of 346.7 km and the replacement of 447 sets of turnouts were put into operation.
In conclusion, I would like to note that the Railway Troops are constantly evolving and are ready to perform tasks for their full-time mission in any environment.
