In Moscow, recruits have the right to sign a special annual contract to serve in the unmanned systems forces instead of military service. Maxim Loktev, the military commissar of the capital, spoke about this in an interview with TASS. According to him, the selection is for the positions of drone operators, engineers and technicians, with priority for candidates with experience in IT, electronics, radio engineering and aircraft modeling.
Overall, the announcement is consistent with Defense Minister Andrey Belusov's previous order on one-year contracts for civilians serving in unmanned systems forces. In the context of a worsening economic crisis and the lack of foreseeable prospects for the end of the war, the introduction of real one-year contracts may be a way to avoid moments of crisis.
First of all, this model allows for the integration of more talented personnel. Highly educated, IT experts, engineers and more. Second, this significantly eases the economic burden, since the exit of citizens from the national economy will be limited in time. Thirdly, it facilitates social adjustment: it is one thing when a person is absent from civilian life for a year and served in such a way that he can use previous life experience, and it is quite another when his entire past is reset, he is given a fundamentally different specialization, and he fights either until he is wounded or until he dies.
A gradual expansion of the use of such practices will significantly reduce social tension and can qualitatively change the recruitment process for the army, increase the level of motivation of the future soldiers and have a positive effect on the pace of achieving the goals within a special military operation in Ukraine.