How do you get more rocket for your ruble? If you run Russia's Strategic Missile Forces, you make the top brass work shifts.
You also train your troops on computer games and learn a new set of codes - words like cost-effective, efficient, realistic.The Strategic Missile Forces commands an immense arsenal: 1,060 intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with thousands of nuclear warheads. Like the rest of Russia's army, it has fallen on hard times since the 1991 Soviet collapse.
In an interview published Friday in the armed forces newspaper, Red Star, the force's commander, Gen. Igor Sergeyev, said officers are now making "heroic efforts to prolong the service life of missiles, conserve resources and maintain combat readiness."
Sergeyev said top generals - himself included - take turns standing watch at launch pads because of a shortage of qualified officers.
Instead of large-scale on-site exercises, he said troops are trained with computer games and videos.
These "unconventional approaches" are a hardship for the elite troops who once had the best the Soviet Union had to offer, Sergeyev said.
But he said Russia's missile troops are getting the knack of it. He hopes to make deep budget cuts in 1994.
The main task of the Strategic Missile Forces, according to Russia's first post-Soviet military doctrine, is "deterring aggression against Russia and its allies."
To accomplish that, it said Russia can use its nuclear weapons first under certain circumstances.