Russian Military Almanac By Tamar A. Mehuron, Associate Editor, with Harriet Fast Scott, William F. Scott, and David Markov Organization of the Russian Armed Forces ussia’s armed forces underwent sia’s military districts and three of the four Strategic Rocket Forces (RVSN), had more organizational changes fleets participated, as well as the Strategic 10 of the new SS-27 Topol-M missiles during the past year. A new plan Rocket Forces. Belarus defense forces also operationally deployed in 1998, up from two assigned the military districts a took part. Defense Minister Marshal Igor D. deployed at the end of 1997. In 1998, the new status. There are now six Sergeyev stated that Russian military doctrine Strategic Rocket Forces acquired strategic operational strategic commands related to the would change as a result of NATO’s military anti-ballistic missile launchers from the Rmilitary districts: operation in Yugoslavia. transfer of Air Defense Forces assets into Russia’s President retained control over the Strategic Rocket Forces and Air Forces. ■ Southwestern Operational Strategic Com- the power ministries (which have their own At the same time, military space forces and mand (related to the North Caucasus Military military troops) and Ministries of Foreign Af- missile space defense forces, including District) fairs and Justice. Overall direction of Russia’s satellites for communications, navigation, military forces was provided by the Security and intelligence, and systems for obtaining ■ Western OSC (Moscow Military District) Council, a body chaired by the President. and processing information, became less There were five permanent council members: effective due to lack of funding. ■ Northwestern OSC (Leningrad Military the President, Prime Minister, Secretary of the District) Security Council (who was also the director of Air Forces (VVS) acquired airborne the Federal Security Service), and Ministers of early warning and control aircraft and SA-5, ■ Central Asian OSC (Volga–Ural Military Foreign Affairs and Defense. Other members SA-10, and SA-12 Surface-to-Air Missile District) included the Directors of the Federal Security launchers from the consolidation of Air De- Service, Foreign Intelligence Service, Federal fense Forces into Air Forces and Strategic ■ Siberian OSC (Siberian Military District) Border Guard Service, and the Ministers of Rocket Forces, a process that was com- Internal Affairs and Civil Defense and Emer- pleted in late December 1998. Throughout ■ Far Eastern OSC (Far Eastern Military gency Situations. the year, more than 30 air regiments were District) Armed forces under the Ministry of Defense disbanded, resulting in the elimination or consisted of four military services: Strategic movement to reserve status of more than In the event of hostilities, the military dis- Rocket Forces, Air Forces, Navy, and Ground 600 aircraft. The MiG-23 fighter inventory trict commander in each district would have Forces. Their authorized personnel strength was removed from operational service, and operational control of all military personnel in totaled 1,200,000. A general officer in the the inventories of MiG-29 and Su-27 fighters each command, including those of the Border General Staff complained that while the Ministry were reduced. As a result of the reduction Troops and other “power” ministries, aside from of Defense forces were being reduced, military in aircraft units, the newly merged Russian forces directly subordinate to the President: the units of other power structures increased, and Air Forces was able to distribute spares and Strategic Rocket Forces, Air Armies (strategic their cumulative strength totaled 3,500,000. place additional aircraft into operational and transport), and Airborne Troops. The situation throughout the armed forces units. This improved the dismal operational The General Staff would exercise overall remained grim. “Untouchable reserves” of service rates from lows of 30 to 40 percent coordination and direction. This new operational supplies, meaning those for wartime use only, to more than 80 percent for tactical aviation, responsibility is in addition to the military district were used to help meet current needs. Only 70 percent in strategic aviation, and ap- commander’s coordinating administrative and one-third of the weapons in the armed forces proximately 50 percent for transport aircraft. logistical responsibilities for all forces. The were considered modern. The Russian mili- Reductions in the SAM inventories made new plan would give him operational control tary–industrial complex continued to develop the SA-5 and the SA-10 the backbone of the of forces during peacetime exercises and state-of-the-art precision weapons but only in Russian Air Forces’ SAMs and eliminated training, as well. the experimental design and testing stage, not the older SA-2s and SA-3s from operational In June 1999, after the end of NATO production. Aleksey Arbatov, a Duma member, service. Work continued on the creation of air operations in Kosovo, Russian forces said the state “is almost completely oriented a coordinated air defense system. Airborne conducted a strategic command and staff toward strategic nuclear forces for maintaining forces, reserve forces directly subordinate exercise, West-99, on a scale not seen since the nuclear shield. There are no funds left for to the Supreme High Command, were to 1985. Command structures of five of Rus- anything else.” 60 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 1999 be increased from to 32,000 to 37,600. As Russia’s only mobile forces, they served as peacekeepers in a number of hot spots on the Russian rim, such as Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and with the United Nations. In June 1999, an advance party of 200 Rus- sian airborne troops made an unexpected push into Pristina airport in Kosovo to serve as peacekeepers. Navy (VMF). Currently in production are two new-generation nuclear-powered submarines: the Severodvinsk, the first of the new-generation attack submarines, and Yuriy Dolgorukiy, the first of the Borey (Arctic Wind)–class fleet ballistic missile submarines. In 1998, joint conventional forces were formed in Kaliningrad and the northeast (Kamchatka) and were subordi- nated to Baltic or Pacific Fleet command- ers, respectively. This was done in order to provide greater protection to these two geographically isolated areas. Ground Forces (SV) Main Director- ate was subordinated to the General Staff when its head became a deputy chief of the General Staff in December 1998. The Main Directorate for Combat Training of the Armed Forces remained subordinated to a deputy minister of defense. Four motorized rifle divisions and three separate motorized rifle brigades of the Ground Forces were considered combat ready. Twenty divisions and 10 brigades were manned at from 10 to 50 percent of wartime strength. Personnel strength of the Ground Forces consisted of approximately 360,000 troops, including forces deployed for peacekeeping duties outside Russia. Conscript training was minimal. Photo by Paul Kennedy AIR FORCE Magazine / October 1999 61 Structure of the Russian Armed Forces As of July 27, 1999 President of the Russian Federation—Supreme Commander in Chief Federal Protection Service Security Council Commonwealth of Inde- pendent States Director, Heads of State Council Director, Minister of Minister, Internal Director, Minister, Federal Foreign Intel- Defense Affairs Federal Border Civil Defense Defense Ministers Council Security ligence Service (Marshal I.D. Guard & Emergency Border Guard Com- Service Sergeyev) Service Situations manders Council Chief of Staff for Coordina- tion of Military Coopera- tion Chiefs of Staff Committee Peacekeeping Forces Secretary of Deputy Minister Chief of Gen- Deputy Minister Deputy Minister Reserves of Supreme State–First of Defense & eral Staff–First of Defense & of Defense High Command: Air Defense Deputy Chief of Rear Ser- (Gen. of Army Deputy Minister Chief, Construc- Airborne Forces Coordinating Committee Minister of vices (Logistics) of Defense tion & Billeting V.M. Toporov) Defense (Gen. Col. V.I. (Gen. of Army of Troops Strategic Air Army (Dr. N.V. Isakov) A.V. Kvashnin) (Gen. Col. A.D. Military Transport Avia- Mikhaylov) Kosovan) tion Supreme High Command of the Armed Forces of the Rus- sian Federation Main Directorates: President Supreme Commander in Chief Operations Main Directorate for Com- Organization & bat Training of the Armed Minister of Defense Mobilization Forces Chief of General Staff Military Intelligence Intl. Military Coop- eration Strategic Ground Air Rocket Forces Forces Navy Nuclear Weapons Forces Ground Forces Administrative control Air Forces Navy Operational control of Nuclear Nuclear strategic nuclear forces Forces Forces CINC, Strategic CINC, Air Forces CINC, Navy Military Districts: Operational Strategic Commands: Rocket Forces (Gen. Col. A.M. (Adm. V.I. Kuroyedov) Far Eastern Far Eastern (Gen. Col. V.N. Kornukov) Naval Infantry Leningrad Northwestern Yakovlev) Military Air Force Moscow Western Coast Artillery Military Space Forces& Air Defense North Caucasus Southwestern Fleets: Siberian Siberian Space Missile De- District (Moscow) Baltic Sea (Kaliningrad Volga–Ural Central Asian fense Forces Special Region) Black Sea Northern Pacific (Joint Command of Russian Northeast) Air Forces and Air Defense Flotilla: Caspian Armies Army Aviation Air Defense of KEY Ground Troops Rocket Troops & Artillery Organization Ground Forces Operational command units Forces of Supreme High Command 62 AIR FORCE Magazine / October