On the 25th anniversary of establishment of Armed Forces of the Republic of Uzbekistan, annually celebrated since 1992 on January 14^th, President of Uzbekistan outlined the major plans for overhaul and modernization of Uzbek Army.

It was, during these years, the strategy and the National Security Concept and Defense Doctrine was adopted. Uzbekistan, taking into consideration the real assessment of the possible theater of war and advanced foreign experience, had created a compact, mobile and well-equipped national army with a high combat spirit.

In the short span of time country have formed the 5 military districts, border regions, as well as the mission capable contingents of troops, in the first instance, the Interior Troops Corps and Special Operation Forces able to tackle the complex combat tasks. The effective system of military management, the mechanism of coordination and interaction of various types of troops and branches of Armed Forces is functioning, that was tested several times during the emergency situations.

It is necessary to note that Uzbekistan was one of the first countries to introduce one year conscription service instead of two years, as in was in soviet army. As Mr. Mirziyoev noticed that in the early years of establishment of the national army there were the serious problems in terms of filling up its ranks with conscripts. It was required to overcome and eliminate the vestiges of the army of the old regime – the discrimination of young conscripts by older year conscripts had brought about extremely unhealthy moral and psychological situation in the military units.

In order to tackle these issues, for several years Government of Uzbekistan carried out a consistent work on eliminating these negative phenomena. The term of active military service was reduced to one year. The social and communal conditions and food ratio of servicemen was radically improved. The system of benefits was introduced to the discharged servicemen in their employment and applying to higher educational institutions. All of this has encouraged a healthy moral atmosphere in the military units and raising the prestige of service in the army among youth.

The creation of the system for citizens to serve in the mobilization conscription reserve – the unique of its kind – became a logical continuation of these reforms. The young men not only go through necessary military training, receive spiritual and physical upbringing, but also raise their civic responsibility and get imbibed with an in-depth comprehension of their military duty as a defender of Homeland.

Announced plans of reforms and modernization of Uzbek Armed Forces stipulate the following:

First, raising efficiency of legislative regulation of such an important sphere as the national security is among country’s priorities. Most of the documents in this sphere don’t correspond to modern realities. Uzbekistan objectively needs to form a clear state system of strategic planning to ensure the national security. It was announce necessity to revise the Defense Doctrine of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Second, it was announced that Uzbekistan remains committed to National Security Concept: commitment to the course of non-alignment to any military and political blocs, prevention of stationing of foreign military bases and facilities in the territory of the Republic of Uzbekistan and non-participation of servicemen in peacemaking operations abroad remains the principle position of the country.

Third, the system of organizational structure of the Armed Forces needs to be further improved. Based on the experience of development of military capability accumulated by the country, the structure and tasks of each military district need to be clarified paying a special attention to its purpose, specifics of the use of troops and the peculiarities of line of operations.

– Uzbekistan needs to develop a new approach to planning the training of troops, which primarily must correspond to the tasks assigned to the units, the level of their preparedness and availability of equipment. In the final outcome, the major criterion for the country in this work must be the practical outcome, focus on the real increase of combat capabilities and combat-readiness of the Armed Forces, as well as the high level of coordination and effective interaction.

Forth, Improvement of the system of training of professional military cadres of all levels must remain in the focus of our attention. In this regard, country’s first step will be establishment of a brand-new Armed Forces Academy.

In the course of implementation of this task, Uzbekistan must introduce the latest methods and technologies to the education process, provide classrooms with modern simulators, teaching, laboratory and computer equipment, create favorable conditions for raising the awareness of attendees, their leisure and engaging in sports.

Fifth, Re-supplying of troops with modern types of armament and military equipment is country’s crucial task for today and the future. In this regard, as a primary task Uzbekistan must develop the Comprehensive program for 2017-2021 which envisages specific activities on procurement of military goods, repair and modernization of available military equipment ensuring their purposeful financing.

It was announced necessity to domestically manufacture major systems of weapons. The scientific-production basis, service centers and joint ventures, as well as localization of production of specific types of military goods will be set up.

For this, there will be new government institution established under the supervision of the First Deputy Prime Minister A.Ramatov of a relevant state body responsible for pursuing an integrated policy in the sphere of defense industry and placing all repair plants of the Ministry of Defense, the Chirchik Aviation Repair Plant, as well as «Vostok» Scientific Production Association State Enterprise under its jurisdiction.