Suddenly, the dissolute status of the Russian armed forces we mentioned the other day begins to make sense. It seems they've been withdrawing resources from the traditional military establishment to better fund the army of the future: Space Troops! Pravda reports:

The need to establish air and space defense troops appeared a long time ago. Nowadays, under modern conditions, if a defense system operates independently, it will not be able to react promptly to all forms of attacks in the atmosphere of the planet and in space.

The debate and the development of adequate plans had been conducted for several years. The establishment of the new troops started in 2001 - at the time when Russia set up space troops. Ten years later, there is a hope that the country will soon have air and space defense troops.

Good luck with that.