Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the critical vulnerability of modern society to the risk of respiratory disasters – situations of mass destruction of people by biological, chemical or radioactive agents with the development of respiratory failure that requires mechanical ventilation. This is substantiated by extremely high cost of conventional mechanical ventilation technology, which currently has no alternative, and implies “anti-physiological” (dangerous to health) pressure-targeted ventilation. Due to high cost of such equipment, no country is currently able to provide substantial mobilization reserves of ventilators, which in case of respiratory disasters, entails high mortality rate among population. The solution of this problem, the authors see the “catching-up” development of inexpensive, easy to use, and relatively safe method of mechanical ventilation with negative pressure ( the so-called tank ventilator or “iron lungs”), which encloses most of a person's body, and varies the air pressure in the enclosed space, to stimulate breathing. Due to the lower price, safety and ease of use of this method, the authors consider it essential in the instance of mass victims with respiratory failure caused by infectious, chemical or radiation agents. The conclusion is made on the importance of advancement of the mechanical ventilation technology based on the method of negative pressure for ensuring mobilization readiness of the Russian Federation to respiratory disaster, as well as the current need of the healthcare system.