Sergey Shoygu had news on the Russian Airborne Troops at yesterday’s collegium.
The Defense Minister claimed the Pskov-based 76th DShD will get its third air-assault regiment this year.
The Kamyshin-based 56th Air-Assault Brigade will consolidate to a regiment by the end of 2021 and redeploy to Feodosia.
There (presumably) it’ll join up with the battalion based there to become the third regiment of Novorossiysk’s 7th DShD.
The 56th was a Ground Troops formation before its handover to the VDV in 2013.
The MOD and VDV have long talked of returning to the traditional three maneuver regiment structure in airborne (air assault) divisions. It’s taken quite a while.
In Pskov, finding manpower, equipment, and housing won’t be easy. In the south, fleshing out the 7th DShD costs a brigade but makes sense. Still its redeployment won’t be trivial.
What else from Shoygu?
- VDV units now have 72 percent “modern” arms and equipment.
- The Airborne got their tenth battalion set of BMD-4M combat vehicles in February, and are slated to get two more in 2021.
- Contractees now comprise 72 percent of VDV personnel.
- The VDV have made 40,000 jumps and air-dropped 44 pieces of large equipment this year. Sounds like they’ll drop a battalion and some BMD-4Ms using a new guided parachute system as part of preparation for Zapad-2021.
Besides raising their “combat potential,” the VDV are also upgrading their C2 system and infrastructure in Crimea, Pskov, and Omsk (242nd Training Center), Shoygu said.
Russian Defense Policy 