Defense Minister General of the Army Sergei # Shoigu held a conference call with the leadership of the Armed Forces. The Minister of Defense discussed five issues.
The first one concerned the increase in the current year of monetary allowance for servicemen, salaries for civilian personnel of the Armed Forces and military pensions for citizens discharged from military service.
As Sergey Shoigu underlined, the country's leadership pays much attention to this social aspect of the vital activity of the army and navy.
On the initiative of the Ministry of Defense, the President of the Russian Federation decided on January 1 of this year for three years to index the salaries of servicemen by at least four percent every year.
In addition, the Defense Minister noted, work is being carried out to ensure the amount of money allowance is not lower than salaries in the leading sectors of the economy, indexation of military pensions in excess of the inflation level and increase of wages for certain categories of workers.
As a result of the ongoing focused work of the Russian Defense Ministry in the conditions of reducing federal budget expenditures, it was possible to maintain and further increase budgetary allocations for socially significant issues.
Sergei Shoigu said that the state defense order for the current year provides for the placement of more than 3,700 assignments worth about 1.5 trillion rubles
Almost 70 percent of these funds, the Defense Minister stressed, will go to mass purchases of modern weapons and military equipment.
"Taking into account the experience of implementing the GOZ over the past three years, this year we have ensured the prolongation of long-term obligations, shortened the terms of the competitive procedures and signed contracts with the sole executors. These measures will significantly reduce the risks untimely execution of the state defense order, "the Defense Minister said, adding that at the moment contracts have been signed for the amount of almost 85 percent of the total amount of allocated funds.
"Overall, the placement of GOZ-2018 is higher than last year. However, until May 15 - the date of completion of the contracting - there is not so much time, so the pace of deployment of the state defense order must be accelerated, "the head of the military department said.
The next issue on the agenda was devoted to the implementation of state contracts in the interests of the Navy.
The Defense Minister recalled that within the framework of the state armament program, the United Shipbuilding Corporation is building, repairing and servicing virtually the entire range of warships and vessels.
In March, the company transferred the new logistics ship Elbrus to the fleet.
In April, the first serial minesweeper of project 12700 "Ivan Antonov" was launched.
By the end of the year, sailors will receive six more constructed and four refurbished ships.
The selector also discussed the steps to improve the training system for the engineering troops of the Armed Forces.
Sergei Shoigu also recalled that until the most important and revered in Russia holiday - Victory Day - there are less than a week left. Preparations for the military parade are in full swing. Traditionally, it will feature prototypes of weapons and military equipment.
These include TOR-M2 anti-aircraft missile systems, Terminator combat vehicles, Uran-6 and Uran-9 robotic complexes, modern drones, army ATVs and snowmobiles.
In the aviation component of the holiday, in addition to modern Su-57, Su-30SM and MIG-29SMT aircraft, the upgraded MiG-31K will be equipped with the latest hypersonic missile system "Dagger".