Ground Forces Structure and Locations: Part 1

This post is in part for my own reference, but I thought it might be useful for others as well. What follows is, as best I can determine, the location of all the the ground forces units. Specific locations are listed where ever I can find them. This is based on the old military district structure, and will inevitably have to be updated when the transition to the OSK system is complete in December. But given that the change from military districts to OSKs is mostly about combining some of the districts, that should be a fairly straightforward exercise when the time comes.

I’ll post the first three districts today and the others early next week. As time allows, I’ll try to get Air Force bases, Navy base locations, and airborne troops  posted over the next month or so. I see this as very much a work in progress, so if anyone notices any errors or has any additional information, please comment or email.

Leningrad Military District

• Combat formations:
  • 25th Motorized Rifle Brigade (Vladimirsky Lager, Pskov Oblast)
  • 138th Motorized Rifle Brigade (Kamenka, Leningrad Oblast)
  • 200th Motorized Rifle Brigade (Pechenga, Murmansk Oblast)
  • 2nd Special Forces Brigade (Cherekhi, Pskov Oblast)
• Missile and Artillery formations:
  • 26th Missile Brigade (Luga, Leningrad Oblast)
  • 9th Artillery Brigade (Luga, Leningrad Oblast)
• Air Defense formations:
  • 5th Air Defense Brigade (Nenimiaki, Leningrad Oblast)
  • 1013th Air Defense Center (Pesochnyi, Leningrad Oblast)
• Engineering formations:
  • 140th Engineer Regiment (Kerro, Leningrad Oblast)
• NBC Defense formations:
  • 10th NBC Defense Battalion (Sertolovo, Leningrad Oblast)
• Communications formations:
  • 95th (Hub) Communications Brigade (Chernaia Rechka, Leningrad Oblast)
  • 132nd (Territorial) Communications Brigade (Agalatovo, Leningrad Oblast)
  • 60th Signals Center
  • 1269th Electronic Warfare Center (Ostrov, Leningrad Oblast)
  • 140th (Rear) Communications Battalion (Sertolovo, Leningrad Oblast)
  • 146th Radio-technical Special Forces Brigade (Bugry, Leningrad Oblast)
• Reserve formations:
  • 216th Reserve Base (Petrozavodsk, Karelia) (4th Motorized Rifle Brigade)
  • 7014th Artillery Reserve Base (Luga, Leningrad Oblast)
  • 7022nd Engineer Reserve Base (Lupche-Savino, Murmansk Oblast)

Moscow Military District

• Combat formations:
  • 4th Tank Brigade (Naro-Fominsk, Moscow Oblast)
  • 6th Tank Brigade (Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast)
  • 5th Motorized Rifle Brigade (Kalininets, Moscow Oblast)
  • 9th Motorized Rifle Brigade (Nizhny Novgorod)
  • 27th Motorized Rifle Brigade (Vidnoye, Moscow Oblast)
  • 16th Special Forces Brigade (Tambov)
  • Operational Group of Russian Forces in Transnistria (Tiraspol)
• Missile and Artillery formations:
  • 45th Heavy Artillery Brigade (Tambov)
  • 288th Artillery Brigade (Mulino, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast)
  • 79th MLRS Brigade (Tver)
  • 112th Missile Brigade (Shuya, Ivanovo Oblast)
  • 448th Missile Brigade, in (Durnevo, Kursk Oblast)
• Air Defense formations:
  • 53rd Air Defense Missile Brigade (Kursk)
  • 886th Air Defense Command Center
• Radar formations:
  • 70th Radio Technical Brigade (Naro-Fominsk, Moscow Oblast)
  • 51st Radio Technical Battalion (Dmitriev-Lgovskii, Kursk Oblast)
• Engineering formations:
  • 7th Engineer Regiment (Belev, Tula Oblast)
  • 841st Engineer Battalion
• NBC Defense formations:
  • 27th NBC Defence Brigade (Kursk)
  • 465th NBC Defence Battalion (Kineshma, Ivanovo Oblast)
• Communications formations:
  • 1st Communications Brigade (Selyatino, Moscow Oblast)
  • 119th Communications Brigade (Selyatino, Moscow Oblast)
  • 147th (Rear) Communications Battalion
  • 16th Electronic Warfare Battalion (Kursk)
  • 82nd Radio-technical Special Forces Brigade (Viazma, Smolensk Oblast)
• Reserve formations:
  • 99th Reserve Base (Tver??) (13th Motorized Rifle Brigade)
  • 262nd Reserve Base (Boguchar, Voronezh Oblast) (1st Tank Brigade)
  • 7015th Artillery Reserve Base (Mulino, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast)

Volga-Ural Military District

• Combat formations:
  • 7th Tank Brigade (Chebarkul, Cheliabinsk Oblast)
  • 15th Motorized Rifle Brigade (Roschinskiy, Samara Oblast)
  • 21st Motorized Rifle Brigade (Totskoe, Orenburg Oblast)
  • 23rd Motorized Rifle Brigade (Samara)
  • 28th Motorized Rifle Brigade (Ekaterinburg)
  • 3rd Special Forces Brigade (Roschinskiy, Samara Oblast)
  • 201st Military Base (Dushanbe, Tajikistan) (being transformed into a Motorized Rifle Brigade)
• Missile and Artillery formations:
  • 92nd Missile Brigade (Kamenka, Penza Oblast)
  • 119th Missile Brigade (Elanskiy, Sverdlovsk Oblast)
  • 385th Artillery Brigade (Bershet, Perm Oblast)
  • 950th MLRS Regiment (Buzuluk, Orenburg Oblast)
  • 581st Artillery Reconnaissance Battalion (Totskoe, Orenburg Oblast)
• Air Defense formations:
  • 297th Air Defense Missile Brigade (Alkino, Bashkortostan)
• Radar formations:
  • 40th Radio Technical Brigade (Marks, Saratov Oblast)
  • 173rd Radio Technical Battalion (Samara)
• Engineering formations:
  • 56th Engineer Regiment (Alkino, Bashkortostan)
  • 774th Engineer Battalion (Chebarkul, Chelyabinsk Oblast)
• NBC Defense formations:
  • 29th NBC Defense Brigade (Ekaterinburg)
  • 319th NBC Defense Battalion (Chapaevsk, Samara Oblast)
• Communications formations:
  • 59th (Hub) Communications Brigade (Ekaterinburg)
  • 179th (Territorial) Communications Brigade
  • 191st Communications Regiment (Samara)
  • 153rd (Rear) Communications Battalion
  • 836th Communications Battalion (Ekaterinburg)
  • 1583rd Electronic Warfare Battalion (Tiubuk, Cheliabinsk Oblast)

UPDATED August 9, 2010: changed some locations based on better sources.

Another round of reorganization

According to Viktor Litovkin, the Russian military is about to undergo another around of reorganization. The current system of six military districts and seven armies will be replaced by four “operational-strategic directions,” broken down as follows:

• The Western direction will include the current Leningrad and Moscow military districts, the Kaliningrad special district, and the Baltic and Northern Fleets.  It will be headquartered in St. Petersburg next door to the Admiralty.
• The Southern direction will include all of the North Caucasus and part of the Volga-Urals military districts, the Black Sea Fleet, and the Caspian Flotilla. Its headquarters will be in Rostov.
• The Northern direction will include the Siberian and the rest of the Volga-Urals military districts and will be based in Ekaterinburg.
• The Eastern direction will include the Far Eastern military district, the Kamchatka special district, and the Pacific Fleet. The headquarters will be in Khabarovsk.

In each case, the direction headquarters will control all troops in their area, including naval and air force units and air defenses, with the exception of Strategic Rocket Forces, which will remain under separate command. At the same time, the headquarters of each of the separate services (i.e. the ground forces, navy, air force, and air defenses) will be transformed into structural divisions of the General Staff.

The transformations are to occur imminently, as there are already plans to test this system in the Vostok-2010 exercises, scheduled for July-August 2010. The main goal of these exercises is to test the integration of all military command and control systems.

These exercises will involve the entire Far East from Lake Baikal to the Pacific Ocean and will consist of a “modern combined arms operation,” including airborne and amphibious landings in hostile territory, counter-terrorism operations, and rocket and artillery attacks. The air force and navy will both have prominent roles, with the Navy in particular involving two cruisers — the Peter the Great and the Moskva.

The goal of all these transformations is to reduce the number of layers of command from sixteen to three, hopefully thereby increasing the speed and accuracy of military decision-making. The idea is that with this new simplified command system and improvements in communication equipment, “the chief of the general staff will be able to call any company or platoon commander” and vice-versa.

Litovkin argues that given the current condition of the Russian military, the goals of this exercise sound like science fiction, rather than anything that could actually be accomplished. I too am skeptical of the military’s ability to implement the reorganization and train people to use all this new communications equipment in the 2-3 month window prior to the start of the exercises. But even if these moves are delayed, they are at least signs that the military is continuing to head (albeit slowly) in the right direction.