The Russian army began to create special forces to work behind enemy lines
The Russian Ministry of Defense is forming unique special-purpose reconnaissance companies (RRSpN). Their task is to find targets behind enemy lines and report their coordinates to the crews of the Iskander operational-tactical complexes and the modernized Uragan long-range multiple launch rocket systems, Izvestia reports.
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It is planned to create one such unit in each combined arms army. Experts note that such units are necessary due to the fact that not all targets on the ground can be found using unmanned aerial vehicles, while special forces reconnaissance officers can operate autonomously behind enemy lines and reliably identify carefully camouflaged targets.
As the headquarters of the ground forces told the publication, the decision to create the RRSpN was made last year, the first such units have already been formed in the combined arms armies of the Southern Military District, and the formation of units has just begun in the Central and Western districts.
“The fire capabilities of our combined arms and tank armies have increased significantly,” military expert and editor of the Arsenal of the Fatherland magazine Viktor Murakhovsky told Izvestia. “Now they have their own precision weapons. Everyone knows the firing range of the Iskander operational-tactical systems. This system fires at 500 km. It is clear that with such a range you need to have your own and very accurate target designation for them. This is one of the main tasks pursued by the command of the Ministry of Defense when creating such units.”
“The first army special forces companies were formed in the Soviet army in the 1950s. But later they were deployed into separate battalions and brigades. In the early 1980s, the companies were revived. At first, the RRSpN appeared in the combined arms armies deployed in the GDR, and later became part of other formations. Soldiers of army special forces companies fought in Afghanistan and Chechnya. But in 1998–2001, all special forces companies were disbanded,” the newspaper recalls.
The Russian army has begun creating special forces units to operate behind enemy lines.