The Russian military has begun to form the Special Operations Forces and has even created the necessary command. A similar statement was made the other day by the Chief of the General Staff, Army General V. Gerasimov.
He noted that such a decision was made after a detailed study of the practice of formation, the process of preparing and using special operations forces by leading states of the world. The general added that the Ministry of Defense is thinking about the formation of several units that will take part in resolving conflicts outside the Russian state within the framework of United Nations activities.
Recall that participation in solving problems within the UN is provided for by a system of reserve agreements, according to which Russia, if necessary, must provide a hospital, aviation group and engineering company. According to Gerasimov, such units will be formed as necessary, and then will be sent to conflict zones in accordance with the norms of the Russian legislative system. The Chief of the General Staff also added that peacekeeping is one of the most important tasks of the military department. A striking example of this is the creation of the 15th separate motorized rifle brigade in Samara, which is entrusted with the performance of peacekeeping functions as part of the relevant units within the CSTO. The training of the military personnel of this brigade is taking into account the specific features of the implementation of peacekeeping tasks: knowledge of international law, especially the use of military force to breed the opposing sides.
According to V. Gerasimov, the increasing role of special operations forces is explained by the experience of military conflicts of the new century. At present, a command has been created in Russia entrusted with the functions of carrying out the planned work and activities of the army training plan. Moreover, a package of necessary guidance documents has been developed, which determine the main directions of development, methods and methods for preparing and using special forces. According to official information, the command of the special operations forces was supposed to subordinate the special purpose brigade of one of the military districts, the Senezh special purpose center, the helicopter squadron (Torzhok), as well as the IL-76 squadron deployed near Tver.
It should be noted that the reform of the Russian Armed Forces and the creation of their SSO was justified by military experts as early as 2008, when the idea of creating a single command center for Russian special units emerged. At the same time, an action plan was developed, presented to A. Serdyukov, then Minister of Defense. But he expressed confidence that the initiative was inappropriate.
However, when Serdyukov took the place of S.Shoigu, and also because of the information that the United States intends to increase the number of secret special operations outside its territories several times, the Russian military again turned to the idea of forming a command of special operations forces. Together with the officers from the GRU, the specialists of the General Staff presented a project for the creation of special operations forces to the new minister, and Shoigu supported this initiative.
In the opinion of the chief editor of the National Defense publication Igor Korotchenko, Russia follows the channel of the most important trends in military construction. He notes that special operations forces, judging by the name, are an association of those special units that are used to carry out the relevant special operations. All of them have a diverse nature: in addition to the fight against terrorism, this includes the destruction of the main enemy objects in a real armed conflict, as well as blocking threats that may be relevant in a specific period of time. Korochenko also expressed confidence that special operations forces in the country are being created, by and large, because of the situation that currently exists in Afghanistan. It is possible that the use of special forces will become necessary in the coming years due to the destabilization of the situation in the region. For Russia, it is very important to have such a force, with the help of which it will be possible to quickly conduct an operation and eliminate the danger at the initial stage.
In addition, I. Korotchenko notes, the use of special operations forces may become a necessity if the interests of the state are protected in remote geographic zones of combat operations. In particular, we are talking about the possibility of countering pirates when trying to seize Russian passenger or merchant ships, promptly respond to possible threats posed by the threat of the taking of hostages - Russian citizens, or deal a powerful blow to the bases of international terrorism in various regions of the world, where there are threats to national Russian interests.
In addition, according to Korotchenko, the fact that the Chief of General Staff warned that special operations forces would be created as an independent command in the structure of the army indicates that the Russian government does not intend to conceal the presence of such forces from anyone. . Therefore, no one should be afraid of such decisions by the Russian military, although it is possible that in some European countries the assertion about the emergence of the Russian military threat will begin again.
Igor Korotchenko commented on the creation of the command of special operations forces. According to him, in Russia there are special forces in the structure of the airborne assault and in other types of troops. However, the problem was that the command of these units was decentralized. At the moment we are talking about the creation of a unified centralized command, which will control all special forces units in the structure of the Russian army. A single command, according to the expert, should increase the effectiveness of the use of special forces, because they can act on a single plan. In addition, they will become more mobile and will act more hidden. But for this, it is necessary to provide special units with military transport aircraft for expeditious transportation to the necessary zone of conflict, reconnaissance support.
Therefore, it is the structure of the General Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff, which includes strategic intelligence, space reconnaissance, and electronic reconnaissance, which will make it possible to use the full potential for the successful accomplishment of the tasks assigned by the special units.
Note that the command of special operations forces exist in many countries around the world. One of the most famous is the American command USSOCOM, created back in 1987 year. This is one of the combat commands that exist in the structure of the American Armed Forces. Special forces of the ground forces, naval and air forces, as well as marines are under his control. Prior to the 11 tragedy of September, the command was mainly engaged in supporting the actions of special forces in zones of armed conflict, and also helped in solving the tasks assigned to US embassies and other government services outside the state. Starting from 2001, the command also took over the functions of combating international terrorism. Command special forces in the United States has about 58 thousands of people. At the same time about 85 percent of all military personnel who serve in units abroad, are located in the Middle East.
In Canada, there is also command of special operations forces. It was formed in 2006 year. Its functions include conducting anti-terrorist operations. The command structure includes a joint task force JTF2, 427-I squadron for special operations, as well as the Canadian Special Forces Regiment.
There is a Special Operations Forces Command in Germany. There the division of special operations was created on the basis of the paratroop battalion. The main shock force is three special-purpose companies, as well as two reconnaissance companies.
In France, Special Operations Forces Command was created in 1992 year. He controlled all divisions, detachments and special-purpose units that were engaged in the performance of the most important tasks outside the state. Later, the tasks of command included the fight against terrorism.
Based on the above, the creation of command and deployment of the SSO on a unified basis in Russia is not just another whim of the military, but simply a vital necessity.
Materials used:
http://www.newsru.com/russia/06mar2013/minob.html
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CA%EE%EC%E0%ED%E4%EE%E2%E0%ED%E8%E5_%F1%EF%E5%F6%E8%E0%EB%FC%ED%FB%F5_%EE%EF%E5%F0%E0%F6%E8%E9_%D1%D8%C0
http://spec-naz.org/preparation/istoriya_vdv_i_spetsnaza_gru_gsh_mo/chasti_i_podrazdeleniya_specialnogo_naznacheniya_gru/