Every year on February 17, our country celebrates the Day of the Fuel Service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, or simply the Day of the Fuel Service. Founded in 1936, this service has since gone through a serious path of development, on which a huge number of serious trials fell, the main of which was the Great Patriotic War. Currently, the Fuel Service performs one of the most important tasks in ensuring the combat readiness of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, supplying the troops with various fuels and lubricants, as well as rocket fuel.
Transport has always played an important role in war, it was used for the operational transfer of troops to the area of operations, the supply of ammunition and food, and the evacuation of the wounded from the battlefield. But only in the first half of the 20th century, with the beginning of the massive mechanization of the armed forces, the appearance of cars, tanks and aircraft, the importance of the supply of all types of fuel increased many times over. Before the mass arrival of cars in the armies, mainly horse-drawn transport was used in the armies, even in the first third of the last century, it was horses that transported most of all army cargo, although already during the First World War more and more trucks began to appear in the armies, tanks rolled out onto the battlefields, and air battles began in the sky.
At the same time, even then, some generals did not believe that tanks would begin to play a key role on the fields of future battles. In the USSR, there were opponents of the mechanization of the army, as this was accompanied by a reduction in cavalry units. However, in the end, everyone realized that the country needed a modern army, which simply could not become one without tanks and road transport. The massive use of mechanized formations made it possible to cover long distances in short periods of time. At the same time, there was one very important problem - the supply of the troops with fuel and lubricants. Without fuel, cars and armored vehicles became just a heap of metal. This required the command to create a special logistics service, which would deal with the timely replenishment of fuel and lubricants, including during offensive operations. On February 17, 1936, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the Soviet Union K. E. Voroshilov, the Fuel Supply Directorate of the USSR Armed Forces was created in the country. That is why the Day of the Fuel Service of the Russian Armed Forces is celebrated annually on February 17.
The first truly serious test of the readiness and professionalism of the Fuel Service was the provision of fuel to Soviet units that were fighting near Lake Khasan. In just two weeks of hostilities with Japan, more than 8 thousand tons of various fuels were spent then. The following year, from May to August 1939, during the hostilities on the Khalkhin-Gol River, Soviet troops used up almost 87 thousand tons of fuels and lubricants. And during the winter war with Finland in 1939-1940, the troops of the Red Army have already used up 215 thousand tons of fuel. With the growth of mechanization of units and formations, the demand of troops for fuel also grew. By June 1941, it was possible to create very large (at that time) mobilization reserves of fuel - about 1.2 million tons (97 percent of the planned volume).
World War II was the first conflict in which tank troops were massively used by all parties to the conflict. For the Wehrmacht, at the first stage of the war, tank and mechanized units became the main guarantee of successful operations in which the Germans seriously succeeded. The first months of the Great Patriotic War turned into a real disaster for the Red Army, a huge number of units were destroyed, a lot of warehouses and property were lost, more than three million Soviet servicemen were in German captivity by the end of the year, but our country withstood a terrible battle with the aggressor. At the same time, the Fuel Service did not disappoint the army even in these difficult conditions, Marshal of the Soviet Union Alexander Mikhailovich Vasilevsky wrote about this in his memoirs after the war. He made a special emphasis on the fact that not a single major operation was failed due to lack of fuel. Even in Leningrad, blocked by the enemy from land, it was possible in record time to organize the delivery of fuel and lubricants, which were enough to ensure the defense of the city.
Already in the first war summer in August 1941, together with the creation of the main directorate of the rear of the Red Army, the Fuel Service was transferred to the subordination of the deputy people's commissar of defense of the country - the chief of the rear, under whose leadership it conducted its activities during the war years. During the Great Patriotic War, the specialists of this service provided the need for the army fighting the enemy in fuel and lubricants, as well as in technical means. To achieve victory in the war with Nazi Germany, the Soviet armed forces consumed 16.4 million tons of oil products, while the Fuel Service provided 50 large strategic operations of front groups with fuel and lubricants at once, more than 250 front-line operations and about one thousand army operations and an uncountable number of smaller battles and fights. The success of the Fuel Service and other rear units is evidenced by the fact that more than half of their officers were awarded state awards of various levels during the war years.
The Cold War that began after the end of World War II provoked an arms race between the two superpowers - the United States and the USSR, the result of this race was the emergence and proliferation of missile forces. Therefore, the Fuel Service had to master fundamentally new types of fuel, which required increased precautions. However, even with this task, the Fuel Service was able to cope with honor.
Another very serious test for the Fuel Service was the fighting in Afghanistan. The delivery of fuel to this country was complicated by the mountainous terrain, as well as by numerous ambushes by dushmans, who staged attacks on the "strings" that carried Soviet troops not only fuel, but also ammunition and food. In just 9 years and two months of the conflict, 6.8 million tons of fuel were supplied to the territory of Afghanistan from the Soviet Union, including 5.4 million tons (about 80 percent) through the constructed field main pipelines, another 1.4 million tons were delivered to the country by road, river and air. In addition, 10,000 tons of rocket fuel were delivered to Afghanistan by air. More than 6 thousand specialists from the Fuel Service completed their military service in Afghanistan. Throughout the years of the conflict, the supply personnel demonstrated a high level of professionalism, providing the units with all the necessary fuel and lubricants, up to the withdrawal of the entire group of Soviet troops from this country.
The Fuel Service also demonstrated its readiness to carry out the most varied tasks assigned to it by ensuring the supply of water to extinguish the fires of 1972, which, in terms of their scale and consequences, could be attributed to a catastrophe on a national scale. This service also played a role in eliminating the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, as well as in ensuring the supply of drinking water to the cities and villages of Armenia destroyed by the 1989 earthquake, the press service of the Russian Defense Ministry notes. Later, the Fuel Service again showed itself well in hostilities, now on the territory of Chechnya, providing the howling federal troops with the necessary fuel and lubricants.
Currently, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation use more than 200 different brands of fuels and lubricants. Each year, the troops consume about two million tons of fuel and lubricants. In our country, specially in the interests of the RF Armed Forces, the special 25th State Scientific Research Institute of Chemotology is working quite effectively. Today it is the only research organization in the country that is able to carry out a full range of tests of fuels and lubricants, rocket fuel components, technical means of oil products supply. Such institutions still exist only in the USA, France and Germany.
Today, responding to new challenges, new types of fuels and oils are being developed specifically for the Russian army that can be used in Arctic conditions. At the end of 2014, they were tested in the Arctic at an ambient temperature of -65 degrees, in the future they will be used by the Russian group. Diesel fuel developed in our country does not cause problems with starting the engine even in 60-degree frost. There are also novelties in the field of rocket fuel, some components of which, using aluminum nanoparticles, increase its energy intensity and density by almost 20 percent, which makes it possible to increase the mass of the payload of the rockets.
At present, the 25th State Research Institute of Chemotology continues to work on the creation of alternative petroleum feedstocks. New samples of aviation synthetic fuel made from natural gas and synthetic oil are being tested. Research is being carried out to obtain new types of motor fuel from coal. In addition, fuel is being developed for promising hypersonic aircraft. In the future, these devices will be able to develop a speed of more than Mach 5 in flight. Also, work is underway on new brands of propellant components and fuels and lubricants, including rocket fuel with increased energy consumption for new generations of long-range cruise missiles for the needs of the Navy and Air Force.
On February 17, the staff of the "Military Review" congratulates all servicemen and veterans of the Fuel Service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on their professional holiday!
