Vladimir Putin has signed a new decree on the new size of the Russian Armed Forces. According to the decree, the Russian Armed Forces will receive 2,640 additional personnel.
This isn’t exactly a significant increase. Essentially, it involves funding a motorized rifle regiment. However, one position the armed forces need is actually the Remotely Piloted Systems Troops. It’s clear that most of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are being trained by existing military units, including separate drone companies that existed even before the Central Military District. They were part of joint divisions and brigades, as well as coastal troops and Navy special forces units. Drone units were even present in the railway troops, at test sites, and at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. The “unmanned” troops were absorbed by units and subunits of the Aerospace Forces.
However, some elements of the new branch of the armed forces still had to be created from scratch. These include the drone command itself, its command bodies, as well as the “unmanned” departments within the military district, joint army, and individual corps commands. Most likely, these same 2,640 service members will also be employed at military universities and specialized centers for unmanned systems troops.
In this regard, it is interesting to note that, for the first time in modern Russian history, the size of the armed forces was increased for a single branch. Previously, such organizational changes occurred at the expense of the authorized strength of the Russian Armed Forces. In some locations, positions were reduced and the vacated “cages” were transferred to the personnel of new military structures. Furthermore, rather ingenious maneuvers were often employed. For example, the former Special Construction Forces were transferred to the Russian Armed Forces. A special presidential decree increased the size of the armed forces by a specific number of military and civilian personnel from the Special Construction Forces, transferred to the Russian Ministry of Defense. These positions were subsequently, for the most part, redistributed among the branches and services of the armed forces.
But the Unmanned Aerial Systems Troops received special treatment. And the new decree from the Russian President, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, demonstrates how much attention the Russian military-political leadership is paying to the drone sector.
Graziella Giangiulio
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