BSF Commander Vladimir Korolev told IA Rosbalt today he thinks resubordinating the BSF to the Southern MD will allow for resolving a large number of missions:
“The South-Western Axis which existed in Soviet times allowed us to coordinate the efforts of various services and troop branches. This experience is extremely opportune today.”
Korolev acknowledged that military reform may progress painfully:
“Fundamental changes in any structure aren’t coped with easily, naturally, they can’t proceed painlessly in an organism as complex as the fleet. The strategic command isn’t swallowing the fleet, the BSF will become an integral part of it with its specific sphere of missions. Adjusting the synchronization of the work of structures, processes, mutual adaptation, delineation of authorities — all this is not simple at all, but it’s very important because such large-scale changes are happening for the first time in the history of our Armed Forces. But we have to go for this in order for the fleet to develop, to get stronger in accordance with modern requirements.”
He called ‘synergistic cooperation’ the main benefit of establishing the common command uniting the fleet and army:
“The fleet, aviation, and ground units won’t compete among themselves, but organically supplement and support each other. The events of August 2008 showed how important it is to have a powerful grouping of varied forces which have to act according to a single plan, dispose of an entire arsenal of forces and means, including modern communications systems, on the Southern, as well as on any other axis.”
Rosbalt said the BSF and Caspian Flotilla will transform into the Operational Command of Naval Forces (OKMS or ОКМС) within the Southern MD.
Now it seems Korolev’s putting a happy face on this; it won’t be easy. Establishing real unified commands is just as hard as it is necessary. Like it or not, the BSF is getting swallowed and subordinated. It will operate according to plans made largely by green uniforms in Rostov-na-Donu.
If true, what Rosbalt says about the naval ‘Operational Command’ is very significant. Remember the much-ballyhooed shift to a three-tier command structure? The tiers are military district, operational command, and brigade. The name sounds like the fleet’s being reduced from equal of the MD to equivalent of an army, another operational-level command. Quite a come down.
Russian Defense Policy 