MOSCOW. June 27 (Interfax-AVN) - An experiment on the establishment of the first Russian unit manned with professional servicemen will start in the 76th airborne division headquartered in Pskov in two months, Airborne Commander Georgy Shpak said in an interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper published on Thursday.
The division will have a very intensive combat training program. "We even plan to re-establish the practice of holding division-level tactical exercises with landing and range practice twice a year; the practice was abolished in the armed forces after the collapse of the Soviet union. I do not mention that Pskov professionals will drive vehicles, fire and make parachute jumps more often than other paratroopers. We believe that the expenses on combat training in such a unit will exceed RUB200m (USD6.35m) per year, which is twice higher than in a regular airborne division," Shpak said.
"In order to allow professional servicemen concentrate on combat training, we plan to add more civilian posts to logistics support units. It will require expenses, too. Moreover, some RUB100m (USD3.18m) will be needed for capital repairs of the Pskov division's military hardware and automobiles that are being withdrawn from Chechnya," the commander stressed.
Speaking about the state of combat training in the Airborne Troops Shpak said that it was high time to think whether the station of 2,700 paratroopers in Chechnya was expedient. "The active stage of combat operations to destroy bandit formations, on which paratroopers played a very important role, is long gone. At present our units in Chechnya operate strongpoints, guard chiefs, participate in police operations, seal off villages. I think that those missions can and must be successfully accomplished by units of the North Caucasus military district and Interior Ministry troops, and permanent readiness formations should be busy with combat training," Shpak stressed.