MOSCOW. Feb 11 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian military's current structural reform in which brigades replace divisions is a response to changes in forms and methods of warfare and the result of an analysis of recent local wars, the Land Forces commander-in-chief said.
The outgoing armed forces control system, where the military district, the army and the division are the principal tiers of command, "has primarily been intended for hostilities in large-scale or regional wars," Gen. of the Army Vladimir Boldyrev told Interfax-AVN.
The new system would make it possible to considerably reduce the Land Forces' reaction time, he said.
Boldyrev said new command bodies had been set up throughout the Land Forces, from the highest level to the lowest. The remaining reforms would be over by the end of 2009, he said.
"On the whole, the reforms are not entailing any decline in battle readiness. Russia's external and internal threats make it impossible for us to have weak Land Forces for even a brief time," the general said.
The general said the majority of new brigades would be based on today's divisions. The honorary names that some of the current divisions have would go over to the brigades that supersede them, Boldyrev said.