On New Year's Eve, a collection of articles "The New Army of Russia" was published in Moscow, edited by M. S. Barabanova. This new work of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) is dedicated to the cardinal reform of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and their transition to a new look that has been taking place since 2008. This issue is of great interest in Russian society, so the collection of articles authored by independent experts (D. E. Boltenkov, AM Gaidai, A. A. Karnaukhov, A. V. Lavrov, V. A. Tseluiko) cannot but attract attention to yourself.
“In this collection,” says Ruslan Pukhov, a member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, “an attempt is made to explain to the broad interested public of Russia both the main ideas and principles of the military reform that has been implemented since 2008, and the main directions its implementation. In the articles of the collection, based on open source data, a description and characteristics of the “new look” of the branches of the RF Armed Forces are given in the form as it was formed by the results of the first stages of reform by the summer - fall of 2010”.
The reform, writes Pukhov, is absolutely necessary, and its main directions meet the real challenges of state security at the beginning of the 21st century. According to him, Russia has no other choice but to receive, as a result of the reforms, powerful and updated Armed Forces capable of effectively ensuring national security and a worthy place for the country in the modern world.
In this regard, it seems quite appropriate to include in the collection an article by Vyacheslav Tseluiko "World tendencies in military reform." He reasonably points out that some of the factors influencing the reform of the Russian army are similar to those that determine the development of the armed forces of foreign states. At the same time, the expert suggests that it is counterproductive to mechanically transfer someone else's experience of military reform to Russia without taking into account the specific conditions for acquiring this experience by foreign states.
At present, as noted in the collection of articles, there is a transformation of the armed forces of NATO members in terms of reducing the number of "heavy formations" of ground forces, combat squadrons of the Air Force and the strike forces of the fleet in the absence of an adequate enemy for them.
In the United States, before the start of the global transformation of the ground forces (the beginning of the 21st century), there were 52 tank and mechanized battalions in the six heavy divisions of the regular army, in addition, there were three separate armored cavalry regiments. The light forces were represented by two light infantry divisions (15 combat battalions), an airborne assault (9 battalions) and air assault (9 battalions) divisions, a separate airborne brigade (two battalions) and three separate light infantry battalions.
During the reform of the United States ground forces, the new 15 Heavy Brigade Combat Team and two mechanized brigades now have 36 tank, mechanized and mixed (consisting of 2 tank and 2 mechanized companies with support units) battalions, in addition, there is one armored cavalry regiment.
As part of the six medium brigade combat groups (Stryker Brigade Combat Team), there are 18 infantry battalions on Stryker armored personnel carriers.
The light forces are represented by 10 light infantry (Infantry Brigade Combat Team), 6 airborne (Infantry Brigade Combat Team (airborne) and 4 air assault (Infantry Brigade Combat Team (air assault)) battle groups, numbering respectively 20 light infantry, 12 airborne airborne and 8 air assault battalions.
Thus, at this stage, it can be stated that the number of heavy battalions during the reform of the American army decreased by 1.5 times, but instead of tank and mechanized battalions, 18 medium battalions on armored personnel carriers were formed on the BMP. Therefore, the total number of battalions on armored vehicles practically did not change. The changes affected their weapons and, accordingly, combat power and mobility (including strategic).
In addition to reducing the number of tank and mechanized battalions in the US Army, the number of self-propelled artillery and rocket battalions has also been reduced. In turn, the number of light battalions in the American army increased slightly.
Thus, in the reform of the ground forces of the United States of America, there is a tendency of their reorientation from full-scale classical war to expeditionary operations, for which combat battalions and divisions are transferred to lighter and more mobile equipment and the capabilities of support structures are expanding to give combat brigade groups autonomy.
The ground forces of the FRG and France underwent reorganization even more than in the United States. After the transition from a divisional to a brigade structure, four heavy brigades (two armored and two mechanized) and two medium (armored cavalry) were formed in the French ground forces. Currently, the next stage of the reform is being implemented in France, within the framework of which four "medium" multifunctional brigades will be formed on the basis of two mechanized and two armored cavalry brigades. Moreover, the mechanized brigades will lose their tank regiments and in the future will replace the tracked BMP AMX-10R with new wheeled armored personnel carriers VBCI.
Such multifunctional brigades are in the same niche with the American Stryker Brigade Combat Team, but they are larger in composition and have more powerful weapons in armored vehicles.
Armored brigades will be strengthened by a tank regiment from each mechanized brigade, but the number of tanks in a tank regiment will be reduced from 80 to 60. The motorized infantry regiments of tank brigades will also be re-equipped with VBCP wheeled armored personnel carriers.
Thus, in the composition of the French ground forces it is planned to leave only two brigades intended for the "big war", and the number of tracked combat vehicles should be significantly reduced.
The German ground forces have also changed their structure according to new threats and missions. Just like in the American and French armies, in the Bundeswehr there was a reduction in the number of heavy units on tanks and tracked infantry fighting vehicles in favor of units on wheeled vehicles. So, if at the beginning of this century in the German ground forces there were 13 heavy brigades (not counting four cropped ones) along with 2 airborne, one mountain infantry, one airmobile and one infantry brigades, now there are six tank and eight motorized infantry battalions an infantry regiment (of two battalions) and a light infantry battalion (as part of a Franco-German brigade), four airborne and three mountain infantry battalions. Thus, in Germany, there was a shift in emphasis towards an increase in the proportion of light and medium formations, more adapted for crisis response than heavy ones.
This trend should intensify even more during the planned new stage of the reduction and reform of the Bundeswehr, as a result of which, as expected, in the German ground forces by 2015 will remain 3 tank battalions, 4 motorized infantry battalions, 8 infantry battalions, one light infantry regiment, one mountain infantry regiment, one airborne regiment and one airborne assault regiment.
To a lesser extent, the tendencies for the transformation of the armed forces in the interests of expeditionary actions affected the Chinese and Turkish armies. In them, as in Russia, heavy formations are the basis. Moreover, in the Chinese army, their share even increased due to the disbandment during the reduction in the number of armed forces, primarily weakly armed infantry and motorized divisions and brigades, and their reorganization into mechanized ones.
So, according to Western experts, if in 2005 the PLA consisted of 9 tank and 5 mechanized divisions, 12 tank and one mechanized brigade, along with 15 infantry and 24 motorized divisions and 22 motorized brigades, at the moment the Chinese ground forces have 8 tank and 6 mechanized divisions, 9 tank and 7 mechanized brigades and 2 separate mechanized regiments along with 11 motorized divisions and 17 motorized brigades.
It should also be noted that under the influence of new trends in military affairs, 3 "medium" motorized rapid reaction divisions and an experimental regiment on light combat vehicles appeared in the PLA.
So the search for an optimal model of the armed forces in relation to the new geopolitical and military-technical realities is going on in many countries of the world. How this process proceeds in the Russian Federation is described in a collection of articles prepared by the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies.
