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Anyone have a source or knowlege on the makeup of the current Russian Battalion Tactical Group ? Is this just a rename and modification of the Motorized Rifle and Tank regiment or something altogether new ?

Battle Order, on you tube, as some stuff. I have not watched these videos in a while, but see if this helps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=felcqDnfrGA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGGKDU4plgU

You could reach out to them and see if they would make a video on something you are looking for. On there websites they have some of the graphics from the videos.

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/a137 ... 36~mv2.png

https://www.battleorder.org/rus-bmp-co

Not sure this fully answers your question, but its a start. Plus, more traffic to this site might enable them to do more.

Regiments form 2 to 4 BTGs. Think US task force. Battalion-sized mix of tank and infantry companies augmented by ATGM, recon, arty, ADA, and spt. Pushing down to a battalion what regiment used to do. A battalion backage.

It seems to me that not much has changed except an expectation and authority of added independant action. The motorized infantry regiment traditionally consists of a tank battalion, a track-mounted infantry battalion (some version of BMP), and two infantry battalions mounted in BTRs. Artillery, reconnaissance, air defense, and other combat and service support elements were retained and directed by regimental. The BMP battalion was the assault battalion and the tank battalion was parceled out to support each of the infantry battalions. The BTR battalions were used to conduct a supporting attack or to follow in support.

It appears now the tank battalion and the BMP battalion swap companies to form tactical groups, combat support elements are parceled out according to the mission from regiment and division. This may mean the bn tac grp gets more than one artillery battery. The battalion tactical group now can play a role more similar to the US battalion task force, and, depending on its task organization, may be more powerful.

We have designed a divisionalbrigade that is more flexible and independent from division headquarters in the Armored Brigade Combat Team. We already had our battalion task force. The Russians have loosened the reins a bit on their battalions and plusaed them up significantly.

I have kept things simple here. You can find plenty of info on the internet.

So I take it that administratively, the Russians flow the same organization as it was from the Soviet days . A tank or MR division having 3/1 ratio of tank regiments to 1 Motorized regiment and Vice versa for the MR division . Once in the field , the division reorganizes and the regiments break down into battalion groups with the AD, AT , engineers etc task forcing into the mix so that the ground tactical commander fights with a battalion sized force instead of a full regimental sized force .

That is my interpretation of the information available in public domain. It may be that nothing much has changed. Apparently, despite some professionalization, they are still hobbled by the lack of a good NCO corps.

I have also read of BRIGADE tactical groups, roughly equivalent to our armored brigade combat teams. The BGT is formed around an existing regiment, pkussed up with additional combat and combat support elements, as well as a logistics package. The regiment may also receive additional tank and motor rifle units. They have warched our ABCTs and evidently liked some of what they saw.

So let's say a motor rifle regiment uses his tank battalion and BMP battalion to form two tactical groups by exchanging a company, one for one. One group is mech heavy and one is tank heavy. They are each assigned an axis of advance centered on parallel roads. Regiment augments them each with an artillery battery, an AT platoon, and other combat spport elements from regimental assets, but the regiment is out of tanks to hand out. The two BTR battaions are each assigned one of the axes to follow in support. If deemed appropriate, the division may send each a company or just a couple platoons of tanks for assignment to the BTRs, adding to the BTG strength. The additional tanks may come from a regiment in reserve or from an independent tank battalion

Brigade tactical groups are also designed to absorb additional assets to support the mission. The basic building block is a regiment, and assets are added in accordance with the mission.

Given what SEEMS to be going on in Ukraine, we should expect to see some revision in this doctrine. It may be the Russians will go back to a more lock-step method. What works for some armies does not work for all.

There is the Doctrinal Battalion Tactical Group and the Reality.

Here is the reality: The Russian brigade commander takes his best battalion and beefs it up with components of his more dysfunctional battalions. This gives him one good Battalion Tactical Group and two battalions-in-name-only good for flank and rear area security.

So composition depends on what's available and working. It's not fixed at all, in reality. Nor is it task organized as per the US and NATO doctrines.

It's more of a "what's working and who's sober?" organization.

I think there is a doctrinal difference from prior practices, based on (or maybe required by) the move to a less rigid structure for Regiments, that are no longer all exactly in a 3+1 model.

panzergator wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 02, 2022 11:14 pm

So let's say a motor rifle regiment uses his tank battalion and BMP battalion to form two tactical groups by exchanging a company, one for one. One group is mech heavy and one is tank heavy. They are each assigned an axis of advance centered on parallel roads.

In the Soviet era this was the model used by the US Army, but not the Soviet Army. The Soviets did not cross-attach, they attached. A Soviet Motor Rifle Regiment would have 3 Motor Rifle Battalions (BMPs or BTRs), and 1 Tank Battalion. Rather than cross-attaching as described above, the Tank Battalion would be divided up, and one company would be provided to each Motor Rifle Battalion. So after the attachment you basically would no longer HAVE a tank battalion, you would be reduced to 3 re-enforced combined arms battalions rather than 4 basic-strength pure battalions.

This lacked a certain flexibility, but it was well suited to top-down deterministic thinking. Every re-enforced battalion was the same in strength and composition, and everyone knew that, in a motor rifle regiment it was the motor rifle battalion commanders who ran the battalions in combat.

This has changed in the modern Russian Army, which now takes the more flexible approach of building the Battalion Tactical Group according to the task requirements rather than by a predetermined standard recipe.

At least in theory. At least according to my understanding. Either one of which could be dis-proven by practice.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

My passage aove was only to suggest how the Russian brigade tactical group MIGHT implement battalion tactical groups. I am aware of how the Soviets did things in the '70s and '80s (active duty armor officer, ARMOR Advanced Course '78-'79, C&GS '88, among other things). In the 70s and 80s, the tank companies of a regiment's tank battalion went to support the motor rifle battalions and contributed to reconnaissance/advanced guard ops. What I said was now, the regiment uses its battalions to form tactical groups. The most likely of these battalions would be the tank battalion and the assault (BMP) battalion, with the BTR battalions following in support. I used an EXAMPLE of how they MIGHT trade companies, which WE called "cross-attaching."

Depending on the mission and whether the regiment had additional assets, the core regiment might form up to four BTGs using all 4 of its battalions and adding assets of its own and higher echelons, if available. Depending how it's implemented, it SHOULD be more flexible.

This explanation is pretty good

https://www.globalsecurity.org/military ... my-btg.htm

Good article!

Here are some pictures of the organization

The Spring 2017 edition of the US Army's Armor magazine has an article called Defeating the Russian Battalion Tactical Group. It looks at how they performed in the Donbas in Ukraine since 2014. BTGs seem to be the heavies to reinforce units of local insurgents who provide border and flank protection. They seem to be a motor rifle battalion with attached tank company, artillery battery and logistics units.

It isn't clear to me at least if that is how Russia would fight in a conventional war, such as in Ukraine now. Many regiments may still be organized along Soviet lines as others have mentioned in a 3-1 format. Some are structured as brigades with more than four line battalions.

Last I knew, the Russians tried to keep regiments using all the same equipment, but that may have changed. Would make it easier to build regiments (at 1 to 5) if I could mix BMP-3s and BMP-2s or BTR-80As with BTR-80s.