Railroad Troops - 1994-2015 - Chechnya & Georgia
The conscript-based Russian Army that entered the break-away Republic of Chechnya in December 1994 was not prepared for the fight. Primary heavy-lift long-haul into the theater was on rail. Railroad troops had to restore 260 kilometers of track, clear mines from another 70 kilometers, repair switches and restore electric power to electric rail lines. Trains had to be protected as they came under mortar, artillery and sniper fire.
In the period of combat operations in Chechnya (1995-1996), military trains traveled from the Far East at the rate of 1,200 kilometers a day (the same speed as passenger trains), but had to mark time for hours expecting debarkation on account of limited capacities at some stations. The same situation was taking shape as military transport movements were performed for the Joint Force in the territory of the North Caucasian region (1999-2000). As many as 100 railcars would build up at certain stations in expectation of debarkation because of the insufficient number of loading and off-loading points.
In 1999 a specialized train of the Russian railroad troops was deployed in Chechnya. These units were assigned dangerous and important tasks of protecting strategic railroad lines delivering weapons and supplies. Russian cargo trains in Chechnya were preferred targets for the Chechen terrorists. Mines and bombs left by the rebels on railroad tracks and trains were found almost every day.
On 31 May 2008 units of Russia's Railroad Troops started rebuilding railroad infrastructure on the territory of Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia under a presidential decree on humanitarian aid to the self-proclaimed republic, the Defense Ministry said on Saturday. "In accordance with the Russian president's decree on humanitarian aid to Abkhazia and a request by the Abkhazian authorities, units from the Russian Railroad Troops and special non-military equipment have been dispatched to rebuild railroads and infrastructure [in Abkhazia]," the ministry said in a statement.
On 30 July 2008, it was announced that Russian Railroad Troops had completed their mission in breakaway Abkhazia and are withdrawing. A battalion of some 400 men of reportedly unarmed Railroad Troops was sent to Abkhazia to repair the railroad on May 31 without warning or the consent of the Georgian government. Despite strong protests from Tbilisi and Western capitals, the Railroad Troops continued their work in Abkhazia for two months. The troops repaired 54 km of Soviet-built tracks with 20 tunnels and bridges south of the Abkhaz capital Sukhumi to the coastal town of Ochamchire. The railroad was out of use since the early 1990s, a period which witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Georgia-Abkhaz war. The commander of the Railroad Troops General Sergei Klimets told journalists that the railroad operation was "purely humanitarian" to help the people of Abkhazia.
The United States government had been cautioning both the Russians and the Georgians ever since the Russians began to take some more aggressive steps such as sending 500 railway troops to Abkhazia, to improve the supply lines there, and some of the other measures that they had taken.
The Russian railway force group in the Southern Military District has two special armored trains, The Baikal and The Amur, and not four, a source at the Defense Ministry told TASS in August 2015. Earlier, a number of mass media said that currently the group has at its disposal four armored trains, which had reportedly been withdrawn from operation back in 2009 only to be overhauled a while later.
"The railway forces in the Southern Military District have two repair and engineering battalions. Each has one special armored train. Their names are the Baikal and the Amur," the source said.
According to the official, the trains’ main mission is not participation in combat operations, but the escorting of military trains carrying cargoes, vehicles and personnel, and also prompt repairs of damaged rail track. Each train carries a kit of materials and components for repairing and restoring 150 meters of rail track, the source said. Each train consists of two diesel-electric locomotives (one is a stand-by engine) and a dozen cars, including flatcars and armored cars carrying weapons.
"The trains are armed with air defense weapons capable of hitting low-flying air targets," the source said. "The personnel of each train are armed with standard automatic rifles, machine-guns and grenade launchers. If need be, the trains may be reinforced with other weapons, including artillery pieces."
All of the trains’ crews are military servicemen. There is no civilian personnel on board. "The crews are permanently ready for coping with a variety of tasks to eliminate the effects of emergencies, such as acts of sabotage," he said.
The official recalled that the special trains were used during both Chechen wars and in the August 2008 conflict in South Ossetia. They are capable of coping with set tasks not only in the Southern Military District, but at any other spot on the map of Russia.
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