Survival training course in the western military region.
220 thousand contract officers and more than 180 thousand contract soldiers and sergeants are planned to serve in the Russian army in 2012.
To be a contract soldier one has to go through such survival training course in field conditions and confirm professional aptitude.
More than 7000 servicemen came to go through the training course.
The program of the course includes firing and engineering training, chemical and radiation protection, medical assistance etc. The servicemen have to reach the qualifying standard in each discipline and get good marks.
There are many women among the contract sldiers. Usually they are headquarters employees, workers of army signals, medical workers etc. For many of them it’s the first experience of such kind.
They say that the women are not indulged, in some disciplines they even do better than the men.
Tank test is obligatory for everyone.
The task is not only sitting in a trench while a tank is moving over, they have to explode the tank with a grenade and shoot the crew.
Not all of them can boast of successful fullfillment of the task. It’s a bright impression for the most of them.
Taking an injured person out
Military protective gear training
The survival course is intended for 6 weeks, it will end with a 50 km weeklong accelerated march. Then they will know who passed and who didn’t.
via ridus-news
I think it was France or maybe Germany (I could be wrong for both) but in order to become a contract soldier you had to have been a conscript. Is this the same in Russia?
You do one year of mandatory service (as a conscript), after that you are free to leave or to voluntarily stay (professionals). Most professional soldiers don’t sign contracts but that trend is fast changing because of much greater benefits.
So yes, almost everyone (even the generals) in the Russian army, started out as a greenhorn conscript.