In addition to writing for Aviation Week Network, Maxim holds a key position at Russia's Air Transport Observer magazine (www.ato.ru). In the past he was in charge of several ATO sister aerospace publications and earlier worked for the Moscow-based CAST defense think-tank.
Maxim has a degree on international relations from MGIMO University, Moscow, Russia, and for several years worked at the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Development of strategic nuclear forces remains the top priority for the Russian military. Within the nuclear triad, the military has a big stake in reinforcing naval strategic forces, although the other two elements, ground-based missiles and strategic bombers, are also being modernized.
MOSCOW – Russia’s rotary industry is revamping its helicopter plans and extending them to the end of the next decade as it pursues government subsidies and grapples with engine supply problems. Russian Helicopters, which consolidated the country’s helicopter manufacturers, is now pursuing a three-stage strategy to sustain the sector throughout the coming decade. The revised plan sits within the government’s civil aircraft and defense procurement program that is scheduled to go into effect in 2011.
Combat swimmer units of the Russian navy are rearming with a new underwater weapon. The 5.45-mm. assault rifle, dubbed ADS (Avtomat Dvykhsredniy Spetzialniy), an acronym for special amphibious rifle, fires underwater ammunition and the Russian army’s standard 5.54 X 39-mm. rounds. The rifle was publicly demonstrated for the first time during Zapad 2009, the joint Russian-Belarusian military exercise in September. ADS was among the new military equipment shown to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who visited the exercises, which took place in Kaliningrad.
