Russian Army Order of Battle - 2020 Developments

In the Southern Military District (Southeast Military District), a motorized rifle division and two missile and artillery brigades are to be created in 2020, Minister Sergei Shoigu said at a meeting of the Defense Ministry on 20 March 2020. He recalled that on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Southern Military District, the reconstruction of the legendary 150th Guards Motorized Rifle Division was completed (its assault flag was hoisted over the Reichstag Mikhail Egorov and Meliton Kantaria; in 1946 the division was disbanded, in May 2016 the Ministry of Defense decided to recreate it. - "Vedomosti"). In the Eastern Military District in Primorye, tank and motorized rifle regiments are to be formed, the minister added.

Earlier, in the Primorsky Territory, on the basis of a motorized rifle brigade, the deployment of the 127th motorized rifle division began, in which new regiments are created, a person close to the Ministry of Defense explains. According to him, in the Southern Military District a new division will also be deployed on the basis of the 19th separate motorized rifle brigade with headquarters in Vladikavkaz, and of the two new brigades, one will be missile with Iskander operational-tactical complexes, and the other will be artillery. After 2014, three new motorized rifle divisions were deployed in the southwestern direction - the 144th in Bryansk, the 3rd in Belgorod and the 150th in the Rostov region, and the 42nd Guards motorized division was recreated in Chechnya. An expert at the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, Mikhail Barabanov, believes that the deployment of an additional division and two brigades is necessary to staff the army in the district.

Their deployment was directly linked to the fact that huge sections of the Russian-Ukrainian border were not previously covered, which was unacceptable in the conditions of the crisis in relations between the two countries, recalls a person close to the General Staff. Now the situation on the border with Ukraine is relatively calm, which, however, does not mean a refusal or revision of plans to enhance the combat readiness of the South-East Military District, he said. In September, the Caucasus 2020 strategic command-and-staff exercise will take place on the territory of the okrug under the leadership of Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, which will include Black Sea Fleet formations. In general, over the past five years, more than 3,000 command post and tactical exercises have been held in the Southern Military District, adds a person in the central apparatus of the Ministry of Defense.

Now the command of the Southern Military District, headed by Alexander Dvornikov, is actively introducing advanced developments, a person at the General Staff emphasizes, for example, since December 2018, an airmobile group has been created in each motorized rifle battalion of the district, armed with light cars - buggies, anti-tank grenade launchers, and automatic flame grenade launchers “Flame ”, Etc., which so far is not found in any other military district. But it is necessary to accelerate the rearmament, the source believes: in the same 150th division, the old T-72B tanks are in service and in the conditions of strategic importance of the south-west direction they need to be replaced with more viable models.

The new Eastern Military District tank and motorized rifle regiments will apparently be part of the 127th MR Division, which was reestablished in December 2018. The new MR Division in the Southern Military District will be formed from the 19th MR Brigade based in Vladikavkaz. Of those 2 new brigades, one will be an artillery brigade and the other will be an Iskander-M missile brigade (presumably Russia's 14th Iskander-M brigade). Russia strengthened the Southern Military District after 2014 by forming the 144th, 3rd, 150th, and 42nd MR Divisions. During that Defense Ministry Board session on March 20, the tape noticeably cuts out when they discuss these MoD structural changes, but he does say "the military-political situation in the South-West strategic direction remains tense."