Pipeline Troops (TbV)
The Pipeline Troops [truboprovodnykh voysk] are a special formation in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Its task is to supply the army with fuel or water during military conflicts and in peacetime. Despite the fact that the Day of Pipeline Troops is celebrated exclusively by the military, specialists in this industry work not only in armed conflicts or in wartime. Field pipelines are indispensable in emergency situations - in case of fires and fires, man-made and natural disasters.
Pipeline Troops (TbV) - a type of formations (special troops) in the Armed Forces, which are designed to provide troops with fuel and lubricants, deploy field main pipelines and supply fuel through them to the warehouses of army formations and formations and perform other special tasks.
The official holiday is assigned to the date of January 14 - the corresponding Decree No. 741 was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 30, 2021. This celebration is celebrated by military personnel - the Day of Pipeline Troops in 2023 will be held on a grand scale in the units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, a sign of recognition of the merits of more than 50,000 veterans and active servicemen, and will also have a positive impact on the preservation and enhancement of military traditions.
The Day of the Pipeline Troops is a very young holiday, it has few formal traditions. In different units across the country, colleagues and leadership will congratulate the employees of these formations. Awards will be given for honest and valiant service. And, of course, relatives and friends will congratulate the military, once again saying “thank you” for their important and necessary work for the whole country.
The First World War showed that all future military conflicts will be primarily wars of machines. The Second World War clearly demonstrated that the most important resource of any army was fuel: the success of any strategic operation depended on how quickly and how much it was delivered to the troops.
The forerunner of modern pipeline troops arose in 1933 - it was then that for the first time they began to design collapsible field pipelines for the Workers 'and Peasants' Army. In December 1933, the Department for the Supply of Fuels and Lubricants of the Red Army received from the trust "Nefteprovodstroy" a project for a field collapsible main pipeline. He became the first in military history. Its characteristics today seem undignified: length - 100 km, diameter - only 75 mm, and throughput - 350 tons of fuel per day. But for its time it was a real breakthrough! Soon, an order for the production of an experimental batch of such pipelines was transferred to production, but it was not possible to fulfill it, since the country at that moment did not have a proven technology for the production of the necessary pipes, and spending money on imports was not possible. But from that moment on, the military did not forget about the idea of field main pipelines.
In 1937, exercises were held in the Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army during which an experimental laying of a pipeline across the Suifun River was carried out. Also, experience was gained in the combat work of special forces in the pre-war years on Lake Khasan, Khalkhin Gol and in other conflicts, the state of the fuel and lubricants supply system was checked in major maneuvers and exercises near Kiev and Kharkov.
Later, during the Great Patriotic War, the only pipeline units in the world (then not yet troops) were part of the Logistics of the USSR Armed Forces. For example, in 1941, to help the besieged Leningraders, a 21-kilometer pipeline was continued along the bottom of Lake Ladoga, and an 8-kilometer one along its shore in order to establish an uninterrupted supply of fuel to the Leningrad Front and the Baltic Fleet. For a month and a half, from May 5 to June 16, a 29-kilometer-long highway was assembled, of which 21 km were laid under water, at a depth of about 12 meters. It was a real field pipeline: the pipes had threaded connections, which were then reinforced by welding for reliability, and this was all done at a distance of a couple of kilometers from the front line, under constant shelling and bombing. The work took a record 50 days, despite the incessant shelling under the fire of the Wehrmacht troops. From October 1941 to February 1943, about 45,000 tons of oil products were delivered through them.
And at the end of 1944, the first four fuel transfer battalions were formed, who were engaged in laying a field pipeline 220 km long from an oil refinery in the Romanian Ploiesti to a Soviet oil depot in Reni in the Odessa region. The materiel had to be imported: as part of the Lend-Lease, a 100-mm collapsible pipeline was received from the USA. The troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts, the Black Sea Fleet and the Danube Flotilla received a total of over 600,000 tons of fuel along this highway.
After the war, the experience of transferring fuel for tank formations with the help of aviation, gained during the Manchurian operationin August 1945, showed that this method did not give the desired results. As a result, the military returned to the concept of field main pipelines, taking as a basis the American set of pipes received in 1944 and domestic field collectors. On November 22, 1951, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Joseph Stalin signed a resolution on the production of a prototype of a new generation pipeline.
And already on January 14, 1952, Marshal Vasilevsky signed a directive on the creation of the first separate battalion for pumping fuel - this date is considered the birthday of the Russian pipeline troops. Marshal of the Soviet Union Alexander Vasilevsky signed a directive on the formation of the first separate fuel pumping battalion in the village of Ilyino, Gorky Region. The key task was the need for rapid delivery of rocket fuel to the starting positions. Gradually, the first units of the pipeline troops turned into regular troops, and by the end of the 1980s, the best field collapsible main pipelines in the world were built. Later, the military doctrine of a rapid massive tank attack on enemy territory was adopted, which required an uninterrupted supply of fuel to the active units of the tank forces. In 1952-1958, 11 separate pipeline battalions appeared in the Soviet Armed Forces. In 1959 - 1960, a number of major exercises were held with the deployment of long pipelines.
The results of these exercises made it possible to conclude that it is expedient to enlarge pipeline formations and form pipeline crews. The “Temporary regulation on the pipeline team for pumping fuel” was developed and approved. This unit consisted of four pipeline battalions, an engine-mounted pipeline battalion, an autobattalion and support units.
The development of a new type of troops proceeded at an accelerated pace. By 1953, the domestic industry had produced six experimental sets of field pipelines with a diameter of 100 mm and a length of 100 km, which went to field tests in various military districts to understand how they would work in cold and hot weather, in forests and deserts. And at the same time, the design of collapsible highways with an increased diameter of 150 mm began, which were put into service already in 1958. By this time, there were already 11 pipeline battalions in the Soviet Army.
In 1961, two pipeline crews were formed, capable of deploying and operating a 600-kilometer main pipeline line. In 1961 the first pipeline brigades appeared, each of which had four battalions. This was due to the fact that the new troops had to take over the supply of fuel not only to conventional field troops, but also to new, missile ones, which also required large amounts of fuel, and besides, one that cannot be pumped through existing fuel lines. From the same moment, the pipeline troops came under the control of the Central Directorate of Rocket Fuel and Fuel of the Ministry of Defense, to which they are still subordinate.
In the early 1990s, the USSR Armed Forces had 24 separate pipeline brigades, 6 separate battalions, three separate companies and 8 separate platoons, numbering over 5,000 people. In the Russian army, the number of these special forces has halved. Separate pipeline battalions, reduced by four into separate pipeline brigades, have the ability to lay collapsible main pipelines with a diameter of 100, 150, 200 millimeters at a rate of up to 100-120 kilometers per day and supply a given amount of fuel and lubricants in one or several directions over long distances in any weather and relief conditions, in any theater of operations or theater of war, under any enemy fire impact.
The Pipeline Troops are a unique unit that is unique to the Russian Army. It has no analogues in the world. Currently, field pipelines are deployed both in wartime - for example, during the war in Afghanistan - and in peacetime. Employees of this formation come to the rescue during forest fires, burning peat bogs, earthquakes and other disasters. For example, in 1986, pipeline troops were involved in the liquidation of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. They ensured an uninterrupted supply of a large amount of water from nearby reservoirs to maintain the operation of a concrete plant and other facilities on the territory of the nuclear power plant.
Over the years, pipeline troops belonged to different parts of the Armed Forces.
- 1941 - 1991 - were part of the Logistics of the Armed Forces of the USSR;
- 1992 - 2010 - were part of the Logistics of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation;
- 2010 - present - part of the Special Forces of Logistics of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
A separate pipeline battalion is armed with the PMTP-100 and PMTP-150 field main pipelines, the PNU-75 mobile pumping station, the MST-100 pipe docking machine, the PSG-160 fuel pumping station, as well as communications and other special equipment. The pipeline troops are equipped with pipe fitting equipment, means of mechanization of work and means of communication. The lines of field main pipelines with a total length of more than 2,000 kilometers are in constant operation of the pipeline troops, through which fuel is supplied from unloading stations to airfield and district warehouses.
Pipeline troops were involved in extinguishing massive peat fires in the Moscow region. In the summer - autumn of 1972, five pipeline brigades and four separate pipeline battalions of pipeline troops took part in the elimination of peat fires in the Moscow region, which ensured the rapid delivery of water to the places of extinguishing.
During the war in Afghanistan, the pipeline troops deployed 1,200 kilometers of field main pipelines. During the hostilities, more than 5,400,000 tons of fuel were supplied, which accounted for 80% of the total volume of fuel and lubricants delivered. The pipeline troops were involved in liquidation of the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the earthquake in Armenia, as well as to extinguish forest fires and peat bogs in subsequent years.
