#20 - JRL 8258 - JRL Home
From: "Dale R. Herspring, Professor of Political Science, Kansas State University" <falka@ksu.edu>
Subject: Russian military exercise
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2004

The current military exercise being carried out by the Russian military, (Mobility - 2004) marks a fundamental change in the Russian military. It is the first major exercise carried out by the Russian military since its inception and should not come as a major surprise. After all, if one looks at the evolution of Russian military doctrine since its inception, one of its major goals has been the "creation of mobile forces -- new operational-strategic units -- including airborne forces, naval infantry, light infantry units, military air transportation and helicopters." (Golts, "Armiya Rossii: 11 Poteryannikh let.") I do not mean to suggest that the Russian military is back, it has a long way to go. Instead, it marks the beginning of a long, slow effort to create forces that are capable of operating in the current world environment. In that regard, it may also be connected with Ivanov's apparent victory over Kvashnin as the MOD gets operational control of Russian forces. Ironically, it also suggests that the Russian High Command is imitating Rumsfeld's efforts to develop similar forces, although I have not been able to prove that Moscow is imitating Washington.

As far as this exercise is concerned, moving 800 troops and their equipment from one end of Russia to the other and then carrying out a number of exercises is a major undertaking for any military. It involves not only Russian Air Force transport planes, but civilian ones as well. Coming in the aftermath of the Navy's recent failure to carry out training exercises using nuclear capable weapons, it may signify that Russia has decided to concentrate on developing meaningful, but small, highly mobile conventional and special operations forces -- units that will be critical if the Kremlin hopes to have credible fast reaction forces. In spite of the "collapse" of the regular Russian military, elite troops such as the naval infantry and airborne forces remain credible combat forces. Indeed, this writer has visited naval infantry units with American military officers, and found the latter very impressed with their capabilities. It was also the naval infantry and airborne forces that were called upon to try and stabilize the situation in Chechnya when regular army units failed.

In any case, it would appear that in spite of the many problems confronting the Russian military, The military has begun to carry out serious military exercises -- with NATO, the US (e.g., the exercise now going on) NATO (Baltop). If this proves to be the case -- ie. that the military is getting the money to train, its ability to carry out operations is bound to improve. In any case, its purpose is almost certainly military, not political. The Russian military has to start somewhere in its effort to put the Army back together and training exercises such as Mobility-2004 may mark a major step in that direction.