the development of russian military policy and finland

Annex 2 · 71
In line with the current military reform, the Russian Armed Forces have been
reduced to 1 million personnel and reorganized from a four-tier (military district
- army - division - regiment) to a more flexible and battle-ready three-tier
structure (military district - operational command - brigade). At present, there
are more than 100 brigades deployed in four military districts. (See after the
table on previous page). 251
The military districts have formed their own separate reconnaissance units.
The ground forces brigades of constant readiness will be capable to operate
independently aside mobile battle groups and other brigades. With the aid of
these intelligence units, the commanders have a clear picture of what is happening
from 25−100 kilometres beyond the front lines. In the near future this
capacity can be extended even to 5000 kilometres by the aid of UAV`s and
other modern means. Each military district has its own separate reconnaissance
brigade and each motorized and armour brigade has its own reconnaissance
battalion. 252
At least three military districts have a new air assault brigade at their disposal.
There will be total six of these brigades. To improve the mobility of these brigades
each of them will have a helicopter regiment of 60 helicopters (40 Mi-8s
and 20 Mi-24s). These brigades will serve in the role of strategic reserve for
the Joint Strategic Commands (Military Districts) as the airborne divisions are
subordinated the Supreme Command. 253
Each Military District will also have an artillery missile brigade with dual capable
Iskander-M missiles. The first brigade of this kind is already operational at
Luga base, near St. Petersburg. The range of the missile is officially below 500
kilometres, but it has potential to fly 700 kilometres in its present configuration
and 1000 kilometres in a model employing new, more efficient fuel. Each
brigade has twelve launchers of two missiles. The new structure of the Russian
Ground Forces is said to be alike its western counterparts. The new
structure is expected to improve the effectiveness of operations, to coordinate
and shorten the chain of command. 254
The brigade organisation also seems noticeably more flexible and more suitable
for local conflicts, since the divisions were too large and cumbersome,
and regiments on the other hand, lacked weapons and equipment necessary
for carrying out independent operations. The ground force brigades will be
251 Pitalev, 2012.
252
Ibid.
253 Gavrilov, 2009.
254 Ibid.