The transition in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation from a divisional structure to a brigade structure and the formation of heavy, medium and light brigades in the Ground Forces made it necessary to check the combat capabilities of the created formations. How effectively will each of these brigades be able to withstand the conditional enemy in the conduct of a mobile defense, smash him in the offensive, and win in a meeting engagement? What will be the fire and maneuverability of heavy, medium and light units? Research of this kind has begun at the General Staff of the Ground Forces.
Colonel Oleg Yushkov, press secretary of the Press Service and Information Department of the RF Ministry of Defense for the Ground Forces, told Krasnaya Zvezda that a group of generals and officers of the General Staff of the Ground Forces, led by the commander-in-chief of this branch of the Armed Forces, Colonel-General Alexander Postnikov, is conducting a comprehensive study of combat capabilities the heavy, medium and light brigades created in the Ground Forces on the basis of the Totsk and Samara motorized rifle formations, as well as the airborne assault unit stationed in the Volgograd region. This exploration will culminate in a brigade tactical live-fire exercise in the fall. Naturally, by that time the brigades must learn to act as efficiently and harmoniously as possible, in order to demonstrate in practice all their power both in target shooting, and in speed and coordination of maneuvering, in subunit controllability. Only one thing follows from this: in the summer, intensive planned combat training should be carried out in the formations. And it is in full swing at the Volga landfills. First, single training, then the coordination of squads and platoons, during which the fire capabilities of these subunits are specified. By the way, as Colonel Yushkov noted, at this stage, some adjustments are not excluded in determining what exactly the squad and platoon personnel should be armed with.
Mouth alignment will be carried out at company tactical exercises, including bilateral ones. In the course of the RTU, both the firing and maneuverability of the companies will have to be studied. Then the study of these possibilities will rise to the battalion level. And only after that it is planned to conduct a brigade exercise with live firing with each of the brigades: with heavy, medium and light. Brigade TUs will just make it possible to draw final conclusions about the combat effectiveness of each brigade, about their strengths and weaknesses when operating on the battlefield, about the capabilities of support units. Based on the conclusions that will subsequently be made by the officers and generals of the General Staff of the Ground Forces conducting the study, it is possible that the organizational structure, as well as the number and composition of weapons and military equipment of the newly formed formations, will undergo certain changes.
Recall that in the course of the formation of a new image of the Ground Forces, which began in 2008, a transition from a four-tier command and control system (military district - army - division - regiment) to a three-tier system (military district - army - brigade) took place and 85 brigades were formed. The peculiarity of these formations of constant readiness is that they are capable of engaging in combat without carrying out mobilization measures.
The "Red Star" will inform its readers about the progress and results of the study of the capabilities of the brigades.
