Russian Defense Ministry not planning to merge air, aerospace defense forces - source
MOSCOW. May 19 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Defense Ministry is not planning in the foreseeable future to merge the Air Forces and the Aerospace Defense Forces to create a new service branch- the Aerospace Forces, a high-ranking defense official told Interfax-AVN on Monday.
"There are no such plans in the long term either. The idea of merging the Air Forces and the Aerospace Defense Forces is none other than a media fancy. We cannot understand what goal such publications are pursuing," the source said.
He was commenting on a media report that starting from December 1 Russia will have a new military service branch - the Aerospace Forces which, among other things, will include missile troops and artillery, including Iskander mobile theater ballistic missile systems capable of destroying the European elements of the U.S. missile defense system.
He also called "nonsense" claims that Lt. Gen. Vladimir Zarutsky, the head of the Main Directorate of the Armed Forces General Staff, could become the commander-in-chief of the new service branch. "Vladimir Borisovich himself heard about it for the first time from mass media," the source said.
