Russia forming new tank army in west. What for?


Russia is forming a new tank army in its western military district which borders on Finland, the Baltic states, Belarus and Ukraine.

The military unit will be named The 1st Guards Tank Army – in honor of the Soviet tank army under the same name which were fighting in 1943-1945 and took part in storming Berlin. After the war, it became part of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany and was disbanded only in 1998.

“Russia is showing the West that it is preparing a striking force in the form of the army in response to the strengthening of NATO on its borders,” says military columnist Alyaksandr Alesin.

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Soviet-era tank armies were a cutting edge of the military power, i.e. they had a clearly pronounced offensive nature. They were expected to quickly break through enemy defenses and rapidly exploit success.

The 1st Guards Tank Army of the Russian Federation is to comprise  Taman Motorized Rifle Division and Kantemir Tank Division, as well as two brigades – the 27th separate motorized rifle brigade and the 6th separate tank brigade.

Previously, these units were part of the 20th Guards Combined Arms Army.

“In fact, all these units will exist as they did, but in any case, they are forming a force which is intended for advancing in the Soviet military tradition. This is a political move, a response to the concentration of NATO military equipment in the Baltic States”, said Andrey Parotnikau, head of the military and analytic project ‘Belarus Security Blog’.

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This year spare sets of equipment and other supplies have been prepared for American troops in the Baltic countries. Thus, in the event of a conflict troops can be quickly transported by air and almost everything they need will be rright on the spot. No time will be wasted on costly transport of tanks, infantry and artillery.

New armored and infantry brigades will be formed instead of units that were transferred to the 1st tank army, Russian state media report.

In general, there will be no big difference between the 1st and 20th armies. Each will have a reconnaissance and an anti-aircraft missile brigade, a logistics brigade, artillery and missile forces units, a helicopter regiment, drones. But the tank army may have more tanks while there will be more infantry combat vehicles in the combined army.

It was also reported that these units would be the first to receive sophisticated weaponry – Armata tanks and Kurganets infantry combat vehicles.

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In addition to the deployment of new armored corps, the armed forces of the Russian Federation continue to increase the number of airborne troops that have been commonly used as part of the elite infantry over the last decades. 5 reconnaissance battalions were established, the 45th special forces regiment was reorganized into a brigade, admission to the Ryazan Higher Airborne School was increased. In addition, taking into account their participation in fighting as a better trained and motivated infantry, six tank companies will be created in Russia’s Airborne Forces by the end of the year.

“An exchange of threats and gestures is in progress,” Alyaksandr Alesin believes.

But such actions may draw Russia and NATO into a vicious circle of escalation, Parotnikau says.

“I’m afraid it may give a start to start to a spiral of similar steps on the part of both NATO and Russia, which will lead to the construction of a new Iron Curtain, and Belarus will become a front-line state”, he said.

Alyaksandr Helahayeu/MS

www.belsat.eu/en/

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