MURUM, Vladimir Region. Dec 3 (Interfax-AVN) - Each Russian combined-arms army will have special brigades of bomb-disposal and pontoon-bridge engineers by 2020, says Yury Stavitsky, head of Engineering Troops of the Russian Armed Forces.
"We are hoping to form several more regiments before 2020 within every combined-arms army and within centrally-subordinated units. Each of our brigades will have completely new units with tasks relevant to the present time," Stavitsky told reporters on Wednesday.
A storming battalion that will be part of a new bomb-disposal engineering brigade will clear pathways through minefields, wreckage and rubble.
"With our Airborne Troops, the tasks are completely different, despite the Airborne Troops, too, having storming units," said Stavitsky when describing the job of new bomb-disposal storming units.
The Russian army formed bomb-disposal storming units in 1943 to liberate Europe from the Nazi invasion. They were able to swiftly occupy a building in an urban warfare environment, clear an area or demine a facility. Back then, 90 specifically trained bomb-disposal battalions were formed within the engineering troops.