The Armed Forces of Ukraine are building up unmanned systems and switching to a corps structure

3 February 13:42

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has defined combat tasks and priorities. Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi spoke about the meeting of the military leadership in January, reports [Kommersant].

Among the priorities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the battlefield, he named the operation of the Ukrainian military in the Kursk region and the destruction of military facilities deep in the country-aggressor.

What else did the Commander-in-Chief emphasize?

– the situation on the battlefield is difficult, and the main efforts are focused on steadily holding the borders and preventing the enemy from advancing;

– it is important to strengthen the psychological stability of the soldiers: measures to adapt newcomers arriving from training centers should be taken before they are involved in combat missions;

– in January, the number of units withdrawn to restore combat capability was slightly increased, and there are plans for the next period;

– the development of units of the Land Forces, Air Assault Forces, Marines, and Unmanned Systems Forces continues through the build-up of unmanned systems in their composition;

– the reform of the organizational structure of the Armed Forces continues, in particular, the implementation of measures to transition to a corps structure has begun.

What is wrong with the organizational structure of the Armed Forces

The Ukrainian army is now mainly fighting in brigades. This is a tactical military unit of 3-7 thousand people, which in turn consists of regiments, battalions, companies and platoons, Hromadske reports.

The brigades are united into operational and tactical groups, and they are united into operational and strategic groups of troops that emerged at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. There are only two of the latter – Khortytsia, which is responsible for the front from the north of Kharkiv region to the south of Donetsk region, and Tavria, which manages the defense of the southern regions of Ukraine.

Above these structures, there are operational commands that began to be created in 2015. There are only four of them – North, South, West, and East. Each of them is in charge of brigades deployed in these regions and is engaged in their supply, equipment and training.

All of this adds up to the Land Forces, the largest branch of the Ukrainian army, which is overseen by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Many Ukrainian military officers have been calling for structural changes in the Ukrainian army for months now, primarily to switch to a divisional-corps system of command, as they believe the current system is extremely inefficient, leading to many failures in commanding troops at the front.

A division is considered the main tactical unit in various branches of the military in most armies of the world. It has up to 25 thousand personnel and consists of brigades or regiments. A corps is an even larger military unit. It consists of about 2-4 divisions and can have up to 50 thousand soldiers. There are currently 5 corps in the Defense Forces: the 9th, 10th, and 11th Army Corps, the Marine Corps, created in 2023, and the 7th Air Assault Corps.

What are the advantages of the division and corps system?

The advantages of creating divisions/army corps were recently analyzed in detail by Denys Prokopenko, commander of the 12th Special Forces Brigade “Azov”. Komersant ukrainskyitalked about it.

One of the main advantages, according to Denys Prokopenko, is the unity of command, as division or corps commanders can organize combat and special training in regular units, personally be responsible for the process and quality of training, soberly assess combat capabilities and assign tasks to each brigade or regiment accordingly.

Other advantages include

– initiative (the command will be able to manage directly regular units without attached forces, having everything of its own, except for aviation);

– simplicity (the process of managing divisions and corps is easier, which makes it possible to build a sustainable defense);

– efficiency (such command and control of troops will allow to increase operational zones and defense strips);

– security (with such management, “plugging holes” and “putting out fires” with attached units will become unnecessary, which complicates interaction with existing units);

– reduction of manual control at the tactical level (this will allow the generals to deal with strategic planning and higher priority tasks, such as strategic defense).

Василевич Сергій
Editor