Montrose Toast

According to RIA Novosti, approximately 320,000 are to be drafted this fall.  This compares to 133,000 in the spring and 219,000 last fall.  The draft is increasing, yet the Russian Army is reducing from 1.34 million to one million by 2012.

According to the article:  [QUOTE:

• The general said the higher number of conscripts was due to the reduction of officer ranks, the scrapping the rank of warrant officers and cuts to contract personnel.   
• As of January 1, 2009, the Russian Armed Forces numbered 355,000 officers and 140,000 warrant officers. 
• "By the end of 2009, we will have 150,000 officers, all warrant officers will have been discharged or absorbed into other ranks, and we will have less contracted personnel,"
• Smirnov said. "Therefore, we will have to draft over 300,000 people," he said. UNQUOTE]

Warrant officers in the Russian Army are all contracted personnel and fill the role of senior non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and techs.  Russian Warrants were established when the Soviet Army decided to convert to a professional army and needed to establish a professional senior enlisted cadre.   

The two decade-old goal of a professional Red Army is done.  These actions mean the Red Army is abandoning its conversion from a draftee force to a professional army.  Russia will have to depend on 18 month draftees for its army. 

It takes one-to-two years to properly train enlisted personnel, which is why US active-duty enlistments are normally four-years (eight year obligation).  By the time the Russian draftee knows what to do, they are done with their obligated service...