One of the main structural units of the armed forces is the regiment. The strength of its composition depends on the type of troops, and its full complement of personnel is one of the factors ensuring the combat effectiveness of the army. The regiment consists of smaller structural units. Let's find out what is a company, regiment, battalion, the number of these units by the main types of troops. Particular attention will be paid to the configuration of the artillery regiment.
What is a regiment?
First of all, let's find out what a regiment is. We will find out the number of personnel in various branches of the armed forces later on.
A regiment is a combat unit, which is often commanded by an officer with the rank of colonel, although there are exceptions. In the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, a regiment is the main tactical unit on the basis of which a military unit is formed .
The regiment includes smaller structural units - battalions. The regiment itself can both be part of the formation and can be a separate fighting force. It is the command of the regiments in most cases that makes tactical decisions during a large-scale battle. Although quite often shelves are used as completely separate and independent units.
Numerical composition
Now let's find out the number of troops in the regiment, taking as a basis the composition of the rifle regiment as the most typical. This military unit, as a rule, contains from 2000 to 3000 soldiers. Moreover, approximately this number is observed in almost all army troops (except perhaps for the artillery and some other types of troops) and even in law enforcement agencies. A similar number of military personnel, for example, has an infantry regiment, the number of soldiers in which also ranges from two to three thousand people. Although there are exceptions, the minimum number of troops in a regiment in any case cannot be less than 500 people.
A typical rifle regiment consists of a headquarters where the main decisions are made, three motorized rifle battalions, a communications company, and a tank battalion. Also, this unit should include an anti-aircraft division, a reconnaissance company, an anti-tank battery, a communications company, an engineer-sapper company, a repair company, a chemical, biological, and radiation protection company. Recently, more and more important functions are performed by a company of electronic warfare. Although in Soviet times, this unit was also very significant. The composition of the regiment is supplemented by auxiliary units: a commandant platoon, a health company and an orchestra. But they are additional only conditionally, since, for example, a health company performs functions much more important, if I may say so, than other units. After all, the lives of other soldiers depend on the fighters of this structural unit.
A typical regiment has approximately the same structure. Photos of fighters of this formation you can watch above.
The composition of the battalion
Typically, two to four battalions form a regiment. The number of troops in the battalion, we now consider.
The battalion is considered the main tactical unit of the ground forces. The range of personnel of this unit mainly ranges from 400 to 800 people. It includes several platoons, as well as individual companies.
If we consider artillery, then a combat unit that corresponds to a battalion is called a division.
As a rule, a battalion is commanded by a soldier with the rank of major. Although, of course, there are exceptions. Especially often they can be found during hostilities, when in the armed forces of a country or a separate unit there may be an acute shortage of staff officers.
Consider the structure of the battalion on the example of a motorized rifle unit. As a rule, the backbone of this structural unit is three motorized rifle companies. In addition, the battalion includes a mortar battery, grenade platoon, anti-tank platoon, control platoon. Additional, but no less important units are platoons of material and technical support, as well as a medical center.
Company size
A company is this smaller structural unit that is part of the battalion. As a rule, it is commanded by a captain, and in some cases a major.
The size of the battalion company varies greatly depending on the specific type of troops. Most soldiers are in the companies of construction battalions. There, their number reaches 250 people. In motorized rifle units, it varies from 60 to 101 military personnel. Slightly less personnel in the landing troops. Here the number of army does not exceed 80 people. But the least soldier in the tank companies. There are a total of 31 to 41 military personnel. In general, depending on the type of troops and on a particular state, the number of military personnel in a company can vary from 18 to 280 people.
In addition, in some military branches there is no such unit as a company, but at the same time there are analogues. For cavalry, this is a squadron, which includes about a hundred people, for artillery - a battery, for border troops - an outpost, for aviation - a link.
The company consists of command personnel and several platoons. Also in the company may include special departments that are not part of the platoons.
Smaller units
A platoon consists of several divisions, and the number of its personnel varies from 9 to 50 people. As a rule, the platoon commander is a soldier with the rank of lieutenant.
The smallest permanent unit in the army is separation. The number of military personnel in it is from three to sixteen people. In most cases, the commander of the unit is a soldier with the rank of sergeant or senior sergeant.
The number of artillery regiment
It is time to consider in more detail what constitutes an artillery regiment, the strength of the personnel of this unit and some other parameters.
An artillery regiment is a structural unit of such troops as artillery. As a rule, it is included as an integral part of the artillery division, consisting of three to four units.
The strength of the artillery regiment is less than the corresponding unit in other branches of the armed forces. This indicator depends on how many divisions are in the regiment. If there are three divisions, its number is from 1000 to 1200 people. If there are four divisions, then the number of military personnel reaches 1,500 soldiers.
Artillery Regiment Structure
Like any other military unit, the artillery regiment has its own structure. Let's study it.
The structural elements of the artillery regiment are divided into three main groups: command, rear and combat support units, and also directly the main striking force - line units.
It is these elements that make up the artillery regiment. A photo of the structure of the regiment is located above.
Regiment Management Composition
In turn, the regiment’s management is divided into the following elements: command, headquarters, technical unit and rear.
The command includes the regiment commander (most often with the rank of colonel or lieutenant colonel), his deputy, chief of physical training and assistant commander for educational work. The last post in Soviet times corresponded to the post of political officer.
The headquarters includes the chief of staff, his deputy, as well as the chiefs of intelligence, topographic service, communications, the secret part, the computing department and the combatant assistant.
In the rear of the regiment’s administration are the deputy rear commander, chiefs of food, clothing, fuels and lubricants and clothing services.
The technical part of the regiment’s administration includes the deputy armament chief and the chiefs of the armored, automobile, and missile-artillery services.
In addition, the chiefs of the regiment report directly to the chiefs of the financial, chemical and medical services.
The composition of the rear and combat support unit
The logistics and combat support division is divided into the following structural elements: medical station, club, repair company, material support company, artillery reconnaissance battery and control battery.
The unit is commanded by the deputy regiment commander on the rear, who himself enters the regiment’s administrative unit, as mentioned above.
The composition of the line units
It is on line units that the main function of the existence of an artillery regiment is assigned, since they conduct direct fire at the enemy from guns.
The regiment consists of four linear divisions: self-propelled, mixed, howitzer and jet. Sometimes a mixed division may be absent. In this case, the backbone of the regiment remains three units.
Each division is divided, as a rule, into three batteries, which, in turn, consist of three to four platoons.
The size and structure of the division
As mentioned above, three or four regiments form an artillery division. The number of personnel in such a unit reaches six thousand people. As a rule, the command of a division is assigned to a soldier with the rank of major general, but there have been cases when these units were commanded by colonels and even lieutenant colonels.
Two divisions form the largest link in artillery - the corps. The number of military personnel in artillery corps can reach the number of 12,000 people. The commander of such a unit is often a lieutenant general.
General principles for the formation of the number of units
We studied the size of the division, regiment, company, battalion, division and smaller structural units of various branches of the armed forces, with emphasis on artillery. As you can see, the number of troops in similar units in different troops can vary significantly. This is due to the direct purpose of various branches of the armed forces. The basis is taken the most optimal number of troops to perform specific tasks. Each indicator is not only a product of rigorous scientific calculation, but also the experience of conducting military operations in practice. That is, each figure is based on the spilled blood of the fighters.
Thus, we see that in the army there are both very small units in terms of numbers, in which the number of troops can be even three people, and the largest units, where the total number is tens of thousands of troops. It should also be borne in mind that in foreign countries the number of similar units can significantly differ from domestic options.
Like everything in this world, the science of warfare is progressing, new technologies and even new types of troops are emerging. For example, in Russia not so long ago Aerospace Forces appeared, which are the product of the evolution and development of the Air Force. With the advent of new types of troops and a change in the forms of warfare, it is certainly possible to adjust the number of personnel of the units taking into account new conditions.