YEREVAN, AUGUST 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s defense minister Davit Tonoyan on August 28 delivered a lecture at the ministry’s administrative complex within the frames of the ongoing preparatory meetings-trainings ahead of the Shant-2018 strategic command and staff military exercises, defense ministry spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan said on Facebook, reports Armenpress.

During the lecture minister Tonoyan introduced his vision on the development priorities of the defense activity and the priority issues deriving from it to the officials.

Touching upon the development preconditions of the Armed Forces, the minster highlighted the importance of constant learning, improvement and making the army more turning and maneuvering.

“Horizontal communication, without bureaucratic excursions, should become a norm, not an exception. We will eliminate the artificial barriers that hinder or seriously undermine the mutual cooperation”, the defense minister said.

By attaching great importance to the steps aimed at arming the army, upgrading the management system and strengthening the combat readiness of the staff, minister Tonoyan assured that at the moment the armament upgrading programs are underway within the frames of which it is planned to acquire also multifunctional aviation.  

During the lecture there have been issues on supplementing the frontline with the latest technologies and increasing the efficiency of combat tasks. In this regard the defense minister said thanks to the works carried out in the second half of 2016 and during 2017 the frontline has been armed with camera and surveillance devices which enabled to greatly reduce the adversary’s chances to conduct sudden sabotage operations.

Among the priority tasks set before the Armed Forces, minister Tonoyan highlighted the priority of improving the combat duty forms, stating that time has come for major changes in the implementation of daily combat tasks. “Our goal is to significantly reduce the duration of the staff’s being under the fire of the adversary, increase the degree of protection and resilience, as well as increase the opportunity of eliminating the adversary’s subversive groups”, he said.

Commenting on the remaining strategic approaches in the defense system, the minister outlined the priorities of moral-psychological readiness of the military staff, further increasing the social protection level, improving the military education system, as well as expanding the international ties.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan