(4 of 4)
The switch to high-tech weapons will send Soviet military costs soaring. The T-80 tank costs nine times as much to produce as the older T-64 and is more expensive to maintain. Qualified personnel will be needed to operate the new equipment -- at higher training costs. Soviet procurement practices, moreover, are skewed toward the purchase of proven products rather than sophisticated new equipment. "They have no problem churning out tanks," says Jonathan Eyal, a research fellow at Britain's Royal United Services Institute for Defense Studies. "But they do have a problem keeping pace with technological advancement."
For that reason, many experts conclude that the Soviet military, as currently organized, will never catch up with Western armed forces in advanced equipment. "What's going on in the Soviet military is an index of their desperation," says Lieut. General William Odom, who retires this week as director of the U.S. National Security Agency. "The Soviets have become aware that they can't afford to compete with the U.S. in quality weaponry."
That realization -- plus the Soviet military's drive to modernize and Gorbachev's insistence on controlling defense spending -- means that Carlucci is arriving in Moscow at what could prove a critical moment in Soviet military history. Since taking over as Defense Secretary late last year, Carlucci has struggled to control costs and rationalize U.S. procurement policies. He may find, in that sense at least, that he has a lot in common with his Soviet hosts.