Engineering troops are a special kind of troops designed to perform the most difficult tasks of engineering and technical support for combined arms operations in wartime and various missions of a socio-political and public nature in civilian life. In particular, the army units of this kind of troops are involved in the elimination and minimization of the consequences of natural and man-made disasters, to solve complex economic and construction problems, to fight terrorism and much more. This requires special training and exceptional combat training of personnel, and also involves the use of specific technical means and weapons.
The equipment of the engineering troops of the Russian Federation in many respects surpasses the best weapons and equipment of similar units of developed states. This technical and military superiority has been repeatedly demonstrated in various "hot spots": in Chechnya and Abkhazia, on the Tajik-Afghan border and in Bosnia.
Engineering troops are present not only in the structure of the Ministry of Defense, but also as part of the Ministry of Emergencies, the Internal Troops and the Federal Border Service. And everywhere they perform complex specific tasks that require the most modern technology and the training of relevant specialists.
Structurally modern engineering troops of Russia consist of units, divisions and formations, which according to their purpose and type of tasks performed are divided into engineer-sapper, bridge-building, pontoon-bridge, ferry-landing, civil engineering, positional and camouflage. In addition, the structure of the engineering troops includes such specialized formations as units of assault barriers, the duties of which include the installation and dismantling of various barriers; parts of field water supply, the main function of which is the purification and production of water in combat or extreme conditions.
The equipment of the engineering troops of Russia vividly demonstrated their capabilities in carrying out the most difficult task of destroying the Daryal-U radar station in the Irkutsk Region with an explosive method. By the uniqueness of the execution, this operation has no analogues in the world. This first destruction of a high-rise object of enhanced seismic stability in this way was completed in an extremely short forty-day period. For comparison, a similar operation on the territory of Latvia took American specialists with their vaunted equipment for about a year.
Now the engineering troops, equipped with the advanced achievements of Russian scientific and technical thought, are taking a direct and most active part in saving civilians during floods and protecting bridge structures during ice drifts. And they also solve the tasks of demining and defusing old ammunition left in the places of past battles.
Today, engineering troops are extremely in demand in connection with the development of so-called mine terrorism and the increasing catastrophes. The priority direction of the reform process, which is now observed in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, is the creation of compact and mobile engineering and military units, ready for flexible and decisive action in the event of a crisis or military threat.