Use the force: Rogozin warns military remains main dispute resolution tool

The threat of military force is still the main factor when solving political or economic conflicts in the modern world, the head of the Russian weapons sector has said.

Dmitry Rogozin was speaking at the session of the Military-Industrial Conference – the major event marking the 60th anniversary of this structure.

The deputy PM claimed that the modern world was full of the Cold War remnants, both organizational, such as the NATO bloc, and ideological, such as Russophobic propaganda. He then stated that Russia must “shake its partners’ hands with a steel fist in a velvet glove” and demonstrate the resolution to defend the peace and its place in the world.

Rogozin forecast that with the high rate of natural resource consumption set by Western civilization, these resources would soon deplete and this would lead to a new struggle between nations.

He added that the new ambitious players were ready to enter the fight for natural deposits and said that “the 21st century will not look like a pleasant promenade to us.”

According to Rogozin’s calculations, in order to answer all current and future threats the Russian Federation must ensure a fivefold increase in its military forces’ numbers. As this is not possible at the moment, the official suggested building new weapons, partially or fully automated, that would allow one soldier to fight for five.

“We should make our primary objective the creation of such weapons that allow our soldier to fight for five people, see the enemy before the enemy sees us and ensure the guaranteed destruction of the enemy’s forces before they can hit us,” he told the conference.

Wednesday’s speech echoed Rogozin’s recent statement in which he urged the re-arming of the military forces and the transfer to fully non-contact warfare, which would minimize friendly casualties.

He again voiced his idea of making re-arming of the military a smooth and constant process instead of the currently accepted approach, by which weapons and military hardware are replaced in generations and stages.

In February this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Russian military forces must achieve a completely new level of development over a five-year period, as some nations are trying to shift the balance of forces in the global arena.

Putin said that the expansion of NATO and the creation of the new US missile defense system were examples of such attempts.