The Ministry of Defense announced the formation of a new digital vertical in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation

A new digital vertical has begun to form in the Russian Armed Forces (AF), within which the first appointments have already begun to be made. This was announced on July 17 by Deputy Head of the Russian Ministry of Defense Dmitry Shcherbinin, taking part in a meeting of the department's board.

"As part of the formation of a new digital vertical in the Armed Forces, deputy heads of digital transformation have been appointed in a significant part of the central military administration bodies," he said.

Shcherbinin clarified that the digital concept agreed upon at the end of last year is being implemented in order for Russia to maintain its military superiority through the introduction of digital technologies, in particular artificial intelligence (AI).

So, only in the first half of 2026, it was possible to fulfill certain provisions, as well as approve and successfully implement private solutions for specific types of troops. By the end of the year, the department planned to continue using new services and connect new users of military groups in the infrastructure of this project, which was named "SVOD".

At the same time, the Ministry gradually began to put into operation a unified information environment. This development will allow employees to improve the efficiency of their financial, property and logistics management.

The relevant measures, as explained by the Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia, are already being implemented at a faster pace.

Clean air: training of interceptor drone operators has begun in the military

Anti-UAV training has been deployed in all military districts of the country.

AI technologies, as stated by Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov on June 29, are also being actively introduced into domestic air defense systems. Then he pointed out the need for neural networks to be trained, as they began to be used for target recognition and navigation. According to him, the relevant project is one of the seven key initiatives that are planned to be implemented by the end of the year.