As Russia seeks to rebuild its empire, as Putin recently justified the invasion of Ukraine, we see echos of an older imperial army in action.
Russia's army is smaller than America's but it has more combat brigades. One reason is that America's Army has a large portion dedicated to generating military units. This is what happens in Russia when the last elements of a brigade are sent to fight:
In recent weeks, Russia probably started preparing to deploy the third battalion from some combat formations, the ministry says, while most brigades normally only committed a maximum of two of their three battalions to operations at any one time.
Third battalions within brigades are often not fully staffed, the MOD notes, and Russia will probably have to rely on new recruits or mobilised reservists to deploy these units to Ukraine.
"Deploying all three of their battalions simultaneously will likely reduce formations’ longer term capacity to regenerate combat power after operations," the UK defence ministry says.
That's what happens when you raid the entire brigade to send parts organized as battalion tactical groups (BTG) to war:
The Russian brigades that provide those BTGs can provide some replacements from the remainder and generate more replacements for those BTGs that the brigades formed, but that still means that the BTG is essentially the brigade in the field. And that support could be across the country too far to sustain the BTG in heavy combat.
As I understand it, some brigades can generate more than one BTG, but even combined those BTGs are less effective than deploying a 2-battalion brigade would be.
Mostly in that post I was focused on the BTG being the brigade in practice by scraping up the best of the brigade and putting it in one (or two) firepower-heavy battalion-sized unit. I didn't really think about the replacement role.
It is fascinating to see that 21st century Russia seemingly relies on the centuries-old former British practice of having a regiment deploy a battalion while the parent regiment remains at home to recruit and train new soldiers. Although by mixing and matching troops to generate a BTG, the Russians abandon the unit cohesion of that British system.
By sending what is left of the brigade to war, too, the Russians are eating their seed corn. I may be wrong about BTGs being a sign of brigade weakness. They may be functioning as intended (until now). Perhaps BTGs are a sign of weakness in the Russian army as a whole, reflecting the problem of a poorer but huge country fielding an army that emphasizes immediate combat power over sustainability.
What does Russia do if this last squeezing of the stone doesn't provide enough power to defeat Ukraine? Will what's left of Russia's army be able to turn mobilized civilians into real soldiers when the brigades have been gutted of trained personnel and working equipment?
NOTE: My most recent war coverage is here.
