The “Russian Military Map” series describes the ongoing military developments in Russia, shows the approximate locations of Russian military groups and drills.
This year NATO has increased the number of military exercises near Russian borders from 90-95 to 150 and the number of reconnaissance aviation flights has increased by 9 times since last year. Iran’s “nuclear problem” has been settled, but the United States is continuing the development of a missile defense system in Europe aimed almost exclusively at Russia. The Russian Federation must take military and technical measures in response to the U.S. missile “defense” system in Europe, NATO military activity and other security threats in Russia’s backyard.
Developments:
1. July 27, Russia has no plans to deploy Tu-22M3 bombers in Crimea. Russian Air Force Commander Colonel General Viktor Bondarev stated Russia had enough warplanes in Crimea “to ensure clear blue sky over us.” According to earlier reports, ten Tu-22M3 bombers were temporarily deployed in Crimea during a surprise combat readiness check this spring.
2. July 29, Russia’s new-generation anti-aircraft missile systems S-400 (NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler) have been deployed on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East. The combat hardware has assumed combat positions near the port cities of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which serves as the Pacific Fleet’s primary naval base, Yelizovo, which hosts the Fleet’s air base, and Vilyuchinsk, which accommodates the Fleet’s submarine base.
The S-400 surface-to-air missile system is designated to destroy any air targets at a distance of up to 400 km (248.5 miles) and at an altitude of up to 30 km (18.6 miles) and create defense in depth. The missiles have become operational in the Russian Armed Forces this year.
3. July 30, Russia’s airborne forces are building up the strength of airborne assault divisions to complement them with a third regiment. A rapid reaction force will be created on the basis of airborne troops. According to a source in the General Staff, the paratroops’ strength will grow noticeably from 45,000 men to 60,000. The source also mentioned plans for restoring the 104th airborne assault division and creating a new airborne assault brigade.
4. July 29, The Russian Defense Ministry reportedly plans to create 2 new battle tank armies, 1st Guards Tank Army and 20th Guards Combined Army, in the Western Military District by December 1 and another combined army will in fact be formed anew. The new battle tank armies will be the first to receive the newest Armata tanks and Kurganets infantry fighting vehicles.
Armata is a heavy unified platform serving as a base for a tank and an infantry combat vehicle. The new battle tanks have received unmanned turrets, all digital control and isolated armored crew capsules. The new electronics will make the tanks a part of a network which also includes drones, electronic countermeasure systems and targeting devices. The creators say it will take less than a minute after a target is detected for its exact coordinates to be transferred to weapons crews. The key armament of Armata is a 125-mm gun, but the use of a 152-mm gun is not ruled out for the future. Serial production of these tanks is expected to begin in 2017-2018.
5. July 31, Aircraft fitness in the Russian Air Force will reach 80% for the first time ever by the end of this year, a spokesman for Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Friday. The task was set first for long-range aviation and then for all aviation forces. Meanwhile, a series of incidents including technical failures have occurred with Russian military aircraft. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has said the breakdown incidence in military aviation continued to be a major problem.
6. A regiment of air defense missile systems S-400 Triumf will be formed for the newly-created Arctic Command and deployed on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago this year. Last year an air defense unit based in the Kola Peninsula was armed with S-400 systems and Pantsir-S1 systems were deployed on the Novosibirsk islands.
The new strategic Arctic Joint Strategic Command went operational on the basis of the Northern Fleet in December 1. The Arctic Strategic Command area of responsibility includes Russian territories in the Arctic, including the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago. The new military command is formed on the basis of the Russian Northern Fleet and it is planned to take control of various units, vessels and formations, previously part of the Western, Central and Southern military districts.
7. Orlan-10 drones were delivered to the permanent service base – the Anadyr-Ugolny aerodrome of the Eastern Military District in Chukotka. It is planned to organize a trial combat duty of the drone unit in Chukotka for objective terrain monitoring, drilling combat training tasks in the near maritime zone and performing flights in the area of stationing of the military district’s Arctic units on the Wrangel Island and Cape Otto Schmidt. The drones will ensure sea navigation security and conduct coastal air reconnaissance over Russian territorial waters. The first trial flights of the drones in the low temperature conditions were conducted in early 2015.
ORLAN 10 is an unmanned aerial vehicle produced for the Russian government at the Special Technological Centre of Saint Petersburg.
8. The Project 11356 lead frigate Admiral Grigorovich is scheduled to join the Russian Black Sea Fleet and reach Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula by the end of this year. The Russian Black Sea Fleet has already completed forming crews for the Project 11356 frigates Admiral Grigorovich, Admiral Essen and Admiral Makarov. The crews of the small missile-carrying ships Serpukhov and Zeleny Dol built for the Black Sea Fleet in the Volga Republic of Tatarstan have also been formed and started training.
Drills:
9. July 22, Russia’s Strategic Missile Troops command is holding a snap check of operational status of the Irkutsk missile unit. Two regiments equipped with Topol mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles are involved in snap checks. Topol missiles are capable of hitting strategic targets at long distances. Most of the attention is focused on practicing deployment of regiments and launch of missiles.
10. July 24-29, A missile brigade of the Central Military District was alerted in a combat readiness check in the morning of July 24 and delivered to the Totsky shooting range. The brigade held firing exercises using Iskander-M tactical missile systems. More than 500 servicemen and 50 units of military equipment took part in the drills.
11. July 27, A heavy motor rifle formation held military drills at the Totsky shooting range. About a thousand servicemen destroyed a large base of simulated militants with the support of army aviation and artillery.
12. July 29, Military exercises involving Mikoyan MiG-31 (NATO reporting name: Foxhound) interceptors and Kamov Ka-27 (Helix) helicopters have started at the Yelizovo airbase in the Far Eastern Kamchatka Territory. During the training flights, the pilots have been practicing various assignments as part of fighters’ pairs and wings using helicopter radar equipment and airborne armaments. The crews will also drill parachute and landing operations.
13. July 29, The Guards Missile Brigade of the Baltic Fleet’s coastal troops based in Russia’s westernmost Kaliningrad Region held drills with simulated multiple and single missile launches. The brigade’s units practiced destroying a simulated enemy force’s subversive groups and reconnaissance teams, acting amid an air raid, crossing contaminated terrain, various obstacles and natural barriers and moving in the conditions of fires. The missile units were supported by Mil Mi-24 (NATO reporting name: Hind) attack helicopters and Sukhoi Su-24 (Fencer) bombers from the Baltic Fleet’s naval aviation.
Mil Mi-24 is a large helicopter gunship and attack helicopter and low-capacity troop transport with room for eight passengers.
Sukhoi Su-24 is a supersonic, all-weather attack aircraft/interdictor developed in the Soviet Union. This variable-sweep wing, twin-engined side-by-side two-seater carried the USSR’s first integrated digital navigation/attack system. Contemporary Su-24M models have gone through a life-extension and updating program, with GLONASS, upgraded cockpit with multi-function displays (MFDs), HUD, digital moving-map generator, Shchel helmet-mounted sights, and provision for the latest guided weapons, including R-73 (AA-11 ‘Archer’) air-to-air missiles.
14. July 29, The Russian destroyer Admiral Ushakov has practised gun fire in the Barents Sea against coastal targets.
15. July 31, Motor rifle and artillery units of Russia’s Central Military District have ended their military drills at the Totsky shooting range near Orenburg in the south Urals, the district’s press office reported on Friday. The drills involved over 3,000 personnel and more than 400 pieces of the armor, the press office said.
16. August 20-28, In accordance with a relative China-Russia agreement, the two countries will conduct a joint naval exercise in the Peter the Great Gulf and the Sea of Japan. The exercise tasks will include: organization of joint defense and joint military operations against the surface forces of a simulated enemy. Also, the sides will conduct a joint landing operation. A key purpose of the drills is to further enhance the sides’ capabilities of jointly coping with maritime security threats.
17. September, Air defense systems S-300 Favorit and S-400 Triumf, as well as combined mediumrange surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery weapon system Pantsir will be used in the CIS exercise Combat Commonwealth-2015. The exercise will be held at the Ashuluk test site, near Astrakhan, in September.
Production:
18. 7 Russian corporations have entered top 100 biggest military companies of 2015 based on the income records: №11 – Almaz-Antey, №14 – United Aircraft Corp, №23 – Russian Helicopters, №26 – United Engine-Building, №31 – Tactical Missiles, №52 – Uralvagonzavod, №69 – RTI.
19. Russia’s Systemprom Concern (subsidiary of the United Instrument Manufacturing Corporation) is developing a universal robotic platform that can transform into a combat robot, a vehicle machine or an electronic warfare system. The vehicle’s testing will begin at the end of the year. By installing a combat module on the platform it will be possible to create a strikereconnaissance vehicle, and installing electronic warfare systems on it will make it a combat EW vehicle. A communications relay or a mine clearance system can be mounted on the chassis. The robotic platform can also use military modules with small arms, electronic warfare modules, and reconnaissance models with flying components.
Depending on the type of design and armor, its weight can reach 7 tonnes, and the vehicle is capable of carrying of up to 2 tonnes of payload. “The vehicle’s length is about 3.5 meters, with a width of less than 2 meters. It has been designed to be transported by an army truck or air dropped.
20. September, Russia’s newest tank on the Armata platform will be put on display on the second day of the Russia Arms Expo – 2015 (RAE-2015) exhibition, which will be held in Nizhny Tagil in Russia’s Urals region.
21. Vladimir Kozhin, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aide on military-technical cooperation, stated that Russia is assembling a more advanced version of its S-300 surface-to-air missile defense system to begin its shipment to Iran by 2016. Also, Moscow is modernizing some parts of the system and changing contract terms such as the pricing. In April, Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan said that Iran will receive the Russian air defense systems S-300 in 2015. The sides will approximately sign the contract for the delivery of S-300 air defense systems during an upcoming Iran officials’ visit to Moscow this year.
The Russian Federation is raising the fitness of its Armed Forces, border security and strengthening the groups in key points and directions of its interests as the Black Sea and the Arctic regions. The ongoing success of Russian military reform has already caused concerns in the US/NATO headquarters actively militarizing Europe and exercising aggressively drills at the Russian borders. The development of the Russia-China military cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region will raise these concerns further despite the fact that US/NATO roughly expansion in the Russian’s and China’s spheres of influence became a main trigger of contemporary situation. Russia’s aim is to show the capability to successfully solve the problems in its operational zone by military forces in case of NATO’s choice to go further in military escalation. Thus, it gains the ground for diplomatic solutions of the crises by showing the NATO hawks that military pressure cannot be a winning strategy against Russia.
Thank you.
“Russia has created a new branch of its armed forces by merging the nation’s air force, air defense, anti-missile and space forces into the Aerospace Forces; their first combat duty started on August 1.
Russia has added a new branch to its armed forces – the Aerospace Force.
Cutting-Edge Russian Space Surveillance System now Four Times More Capable
The newly created branch has merged the country’s air force, air defense, anti-missile and space forces under one command, according to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
“The creation of the Aerospace Forces by merging the air force and aerospace defense force is the optimal way of improving the system of the nation’s aerospace defense,” Shoigu said at a teleconference on Monday.
He added that the creation of the new branch was prompted by a shift in the center of gravity of modern warfare activity into aerospace.
The minister also stressed that merging several branches would allow Russia’s armed services, first and foremost, to concentrate all the responsibility for the shaping of the military and technical policy on development of the aerospace forces in one hands. Second, it would increase the efficiency of its implementation, and third, it would ensure the incremental development of the country’s aerospace defense system.
© SPUTNIK/ MIHAIL MOKRUSHIN
Russian Air Force’s Anti-Aircraft Missile Troops in Facts and Details
The current Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force, Viktor Bondarev, has been put in charge of the new branch.
Following Vladimir Putin’s presidential decree, the newly created force commenced combat duty on August 1.
The Aerospace Force is responsible for centralized control over the combat air forces, air defense forces, and anti-missile defense network as well as the launch and control of the spacecraft of Russia’s orbit group and control over aerospace.
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/russia/20150803/1025345164.html#ixzz3hlMpApmV
Yeah,
now enough of optimistic propaganda.
The US Army is capable of building mess all the world around across the oceans,
although however they call it democracy or protection of national interests.
Russia even cannot take care of Russian ethnicity people 30 km from its own borders!
Just 23 years watching how Ukraine (which was heavy developed and funded even in the USSR times) becomes a fascistic black hole of Europe. And all the time giving discounts on raw materials (incl. gas and oil) in terms of billions USD.
Are there any Russian sanctions against the enemy neighbour? At least against its oligarchs and their companies who by taxes feed the Poroshenko´s and Yatsenyuk´s junta regime in Kiev? So the common citizen who was robbed in privatization is now shelled by heavy artillery.
Everything possible in a world where Obama (and Arafat and Ahtisaari) got the Nobel prize.
One minute of video/phone interview with Jimmy Carter, in which he states that the US is merely an oligarchy now. Hey, the Oligarchs are everywhere now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDsPWmioSHg
“31 July 2015
General Shamanov on Airborne Forces expanion plans
By bmpd
Translated from Russian by J.Hawk
TASS announced on 29 July that Airborne Forces (VDV) commander Colonel-General Vladimir Shamanov told journalists at a Moscow press conference that the VDV may deploy a new assault-landing regiment in Crimea, in the city of Dzhankoy.
“The 7th Division of the VDV which is stationed in Novorossiysk, Stavropol, and Anapa, will have its 97th Assault Landing Regiment reactivated. We are considering the Crimean city of Dzhankoy,” Shamanov said.
In late last year Shamanov said there were no plans to station VDV units in Crimea, but he did not rule it out.
On the forming of third regiments
Shamanov said that VDV will reactivate third regiments within assault landing divisions. “We’re discussing it with the General Staff. As we are increasing the personnel strength of assault landing divisions, it would be logical to form third regiments,” Shamanov said.
Openly available information indicates that the Russian assault landing divisions, the 7th and the 76th, have two regiments each, in addition to one artillery and one air defense regiment.
Shamanov said earlier that the VDV will be the basis for forming Russia’s rapid reaction forces. GenStaff source said it would entail a considerable increase of VDV personnel strength, from 45 thousand to 60 thousand. It could result in the reactivation of the 104th Assault Landing Division that is currently being considered, the formation of a new assault landing brigade, and several other measures.
Ratnik for VDV
“There are still a few technical issues which are being worked out and which we expect will be worked out by year’s end, and the equipment will start arriving in units on a mass scale next year,”
Shamanov said that the VDV will obtain 800 Ratnik equipment sets this year. Reconnaissance units will be the first to receive it. Th
Ratnik is being touted as the “soldier of the future” equipment suite. It includes 40 pieces of equipment, including weapons, aiming, communications, targeting, and navigation systems. The Armed Forces will receive at least 50 thousand sets a year, and the order may be increased to 70 thousand a year.
On new armor for the Ryazan regiment
Shamanov said that the Ryazan regiment of the VDV (the 137th Guards Parachute Regiment of the 106th Guards Airborne Division) will receive enough BMD-4M and Rakuskha vehicles to equip a battalion.
Shamanov said earlier that VDV would receive 50 BMD-4Ms and 30 Rakushkas. The total order specifies over 250 BMD-4s and Rakushkas. According to Shamanov, the new vehicle is practically in service. “We’ve completed most of the work, we are at the final stages of acceptance. We expect the Minister of Defense will sign the order in near future.”
UAVs in VDV
UAV units will appear in every division, brigade, and regiment of the VDV. “They are already in the 83rd Brigade in Ussuriysk and the 98th Division in Ivanovo. But they will be in every unit within the next several years,” Shamanov said. They will be at first reconnaissance UAVs, but eventually also attack ones.
J.Hawk’s Comment: Looking at this and other related stories, we’re looking at what the Soviet operational art called the Deep Battle, with no component of it being neglected. Assault sappers supporting motor rifle troops as a break-in force, tank divisions and armies as a break-out force, and finally airborne forces to secure strategic sites in enemy’s strategic depth in order to facilitate own advance and dislocate enemy defensive plans. All of that with an improved ability to operate in a contaminated environment. All in all, a very credible conventional deterrent force, and an equally credible conventional warfighting force.”
I saw this article at the SouthFront website yesterday. Why did you post it without the source and delete the captions from the image? I read Saker’s blog for a long time but I never saw a situation as this before.
Dear Mike,
Thank you for the comment. “Russian Military Map” is a new product developed together with Saker. The idea was suggested by Saker. Concept and realization are joint. So this article could be disseminated under 2 brands: SouthFront and Saker. Also, anyone can use this content with source link on thesaker.is or(and) southfront.org
Thank you for the feedback and the attitude.
Kind regards,
SouthFront Team
Well, truth be told this is 99% SouthFront’s work and I should have put a link back to the original page.
So – I am guilty as charged :-(
Cheers,
The Saker
PS: thank you SF!
Given this remarkable military effort and capability, the naive outsider has a question regarding Novorussia. Why some of these weapons are not used to inflict some kind of lessons on those who continue to attack Novorussia, inflicting casualties among soldiers and civilians? Without deflecting from the policy well outlined by the Saker in previous articles. How long can Novorussia withstand this constant armed attack at her borders and mounting casualties.
It´s becoming too late now I´m afraid. Today US announced that they can attack Syrian troops as well as IS terrorist so the war is coming closer and the armata platform is not in serial production as I know it (could be wrong)
A diversion; for a light-hearted Putin bashing this one about the Mistrals is hard to beat:
“Putin’s Ark could transport as many as 4,000 refugees at a time to the abandoned Nazi air base near Gdansk.
As for Putin’s micro-planning, an abandoned Nazi airfield just South of Baltiysk on Vistula Lagoon in Kaliningrad Oblast sits immediately adjacent to Poland’s frontiers. What was once the pride of the Teutonic Knights, Königsberg could well be the subject of some future film about the exodus of an embattled people, North African’s fleeing persecution for a better life in Europe!
Who knows, Mr. Putin and the Russians might even create a nation state there, something akin to Israel, a refuge and spiritual Mecca for people’s cast out by US drones, oil corporations, and Washington think tank curmudgeons”
http://russia-insider.com/en/putins-missed-opportunity/ri9076
Phil Butler just lost my respect with this post.
Russians should not demographically replace themselves with aliens. Let the aliens solve their own problems. Refugees must seek a safe place in the nearest country, or inside their own country in areas not under risk.
You see Ukrainians are fleeing to other regions of Ukraine or to Russia, not to any other distant nation.
Europeans generally flee to other European countries. That’s what ethnic Germans did in the ending months of WWII, or what the French Huguenots did before them, or what ethnic Russians did when the Soviet Union fell and there were conflicts in Central Asia and the Caucasus. The non-continentals should have a little of self-respect and do the same as we do. They should not be demographically replacing us. This is a crime in itself.
@John
It is a satirical piece on the possibilies of blowback.
But satire can also be prescient: delivery of the consequences of EUs spineless complicity in the havoc created by US, French, Israeli and UK Intel, as well as the wholesale slaughter of indigenous peoples by their mercenaries via NATO would be karma indeed.
further recent links of interest/background reading
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said that the reasons for the adoption of the new maritime doctrine are changes in the international political situation and the objective strengthening of Russia as a great naval power.
BALTYISK (Kaliningrad Region) (Sputnik) – Russia’s new maritime doctrine will lay the legal foundation for maritime activities, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Sunday.
“We expect work to roll out in the near future to draft legislation on public administration of maritime activity on the basis of the maritime doctrine,” Rogozin said.
© SPUTNIK/ MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV
Putin Salutes Baltic Fleet on Russia’s Navy Day
New Russia’s Maritime Doctrine was adopted by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The president announced today that he approved the Maritime Doctrine,” Rogozin told reporters.
According to the deputy prime minister, the amendments to the doctrine are the result of the changes in the political situation in the world.
“The reasons for the adoption of the new doctrine are changes in the international political situation and the objective strengthening of Russia as a great naval power,” Rogozin said
He added that the new law will coordinate and consolidate works between the Russian federal government’s Marine Board and local maritime councils.
The newly amended version of the doctrine calls for the “provision of sufficient Russian naval presence in the Atlantic Ocean.”
© REUTERS/ MAXIM SHEMETOV
Sea Aegis: Russia Celebrates Navy Day
18
“The determining factor in relations with NATO remains the alliance’s unacceptable to Russia plans to advance its military infrastructure to [Russian] borders,” the doctrine reads.
“In the Black and Azov seas, the bases of national maritime policy are the accelerated recovery and comprehensive strengthening of Russia’s strategic positions, [as well as] the maintenance of peace and stability in the region,” according to the doctrine.
The regional section of Russia’s national maritime policy calls for “ensuring sufficient naval presence of the Russian Federation in the [Mediterranean] region on a permanent basis.”
As part of the strategic framework, the doctrine also calls for the improvement of the Black Sea Fleet and its infrastructure in Crimea and coastal Krasnodar Territory.
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/russia/20150726/1025068628.html#ixzz3hpYRJ7uj
Russia is monitoring the situation in the Arctic Region at a distance of 310 miles from the coastline, the Defense Ministry said.
© SPUTNIK/ VLADIMIR ASTAPKOVICH
Russia to Deliver 140,000 Tonnes of Cargo for Troops in Arctic
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia is monitoring the Arctic waters and airspace at a distance of over 300 miles from the coastline, a representative of the country’s Defense Ministry told journalists on Friday.
“The system of control of the situation in the Arctic is active at a distance of 500 kilometers [310 miles] from the shore,” the representative said, adding that monitoring the situation in the region is key to ensuring Russia’s security in the north.
In 2013, Moscow announced a strategy to increase its presence in the Arctic and to boost the region’s development by 2020. Since then, Russia has been particularly active in exploring opportunities in the Arctic and is planning to build a unified network of military facilities in the region in order to strengthen its border defense.
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/military/20150731/1025241761.html#ixzz3hpYfHEoF
Russia has submitted a revised application to the United Nations seeking the expansion of its Arctic shelf border.
UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) – Russia has been seeking the recognition of an expanded resource-rich outer limit of the continental shelf (OLCS) since 2001, but has been turned down, citing lack of evidence.
© AFP 2015/ TIM EXTON
Shell Begins Drilling in Arctic Off Alaska’s Coast
The partial revised submission to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), published Monday, argues that “the constituent parts of the Complex of the Central Arctic Submarine Elevations… have the continental origin.”
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/politics/20150804/1025370215.html#ixzz3hpYndcBC
MOSCOW, August 3. /TASS/. Russia’s United Ship-building Corporation (USC) is doing its best to fulfil its liabilities under the state defense order, USC President Alexey Rakhmanov told TASS on Monday.
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“We are aware of all potential risks related to the 2015 state defense order projects that have been outlined by the defense minister. But not only the United Ship-building Corporation and its companies are facing these risks. As for us, we are sparing no effort to fulfil our liabilities,” he pledged, commenting on today’s pronouncements of Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu that deadlines for the construction and repairs of warships for the Russian Navy were likely to be broken.
“A total of 17 warships and boats and 52 auxiliary vessels are to be handed over to Russia’s Navy by the end of 2015, including 12 ships and vessels provided by the United Shipbuilding Corporation. Whereas we have no doubts about others for now, but there are grounds to assume that USC will not complete construction and repair works by the deadline,” Shoigu said.
MOSCOW, August 4. /TASS/. The 14th Air Force and Air Defense Army has been formed in Russia’s Central Military District, the aid to the district’s commander, Colonel Yaroslav Roshchupkin, has told TASS.
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Russian Defense Ministry to build up strength of airborne assault divisions
“It includes units of the 2nd Air Force and Air Defense Command stationed in the Volga River area, the Urals and Siberia. The purpose of this reformatting is to enhance the effectiveness of control of troops, better the organization of the daily routine and planning of combat operations,” he said.
Roshchupkin said the 14th army’s area of responsibility covered 29 Russian regions and 3,000 kilometers of the state border.
“The pilots perform training and combat missions over Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan and provide search and rescue support for the launches and landings of manned spacecraft,” he said.
The army is armed with MiG-31BM interceptors, Suhkhoi Su-24M frontline bombers, Mil Mi-8AMTSH, Mi-24 and Mi-26 helicopters, S-300PS air defense missile systems and other hardware, Roshchupkin said.