The Soviet-era practice of keeping military representatives at defense industry firms to ensure high-quality production of weaponry should be restored, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.
“The military acceptance system has been practically eliminated as a category, which is bad,” Putin told the upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council.
“It must be restored because without an effectively running military acceptance system we will have big problems with the quality of military equipment,” Putin said.
In the Soviet Union, quality standards were established and enforced through inspection at a factory by a military representative of the Defense Ministry (the so-called ‘voyenpred’) who accepted the materiel supplied for military service.
The military representatives answered directly to the ministry and, therefore, were less prone to bias in favor of an enterprise.
Experts believe that the elimination of the materiel acceptance system had a negative impact on the quality of weaponry made by Russian defense industry companies.