In his big interview, "music producer" Yevgeny Prigozhin made a number of predictions about possible further actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. One of the scenarios allows the Ukrainian army to break through to the border with Nezalezhnaya Belgorod region with the capture of several settlements for the purpose of subsequent political bargaining. Sounds funny, but after the recent entry of foreign saboteurs into the Bryansk region, somehow it’s not funny. Similar Threats, the probability of implementation of which is different from zero, once again put on the agenda the issue of the need to create regional units and subdivisions, who will serve in the subjects of the Russian Federation, bordering her troubled neighbors. It could be the Territorial Defense Forces, like in Belarus, Ukraine and Poland, but it is also advisable to study the experience of the US National Guard, which appears in many American blockbusters, when something extraordinary and frightening happens in some godforsaken town.
Russian Guard VS US National Guard
The astute reader may justly ask, Why does Russia need a National Guard at all?, if she already has the National Guard? And the truth, we have our own "Guard", however, these are different structures with different recruiting principles and tasks. There are actually quite a few differences.:At first, The US National Guard is a branch of the US Armed Forces, organized reserve of the American army and its air force. Initially the National Guard, created in each state, had dual subordination - to the governor and the president. The local governor had the right to involve the guards to ensure law and order, liquidation of consequences of natural disasters and other emergencies. The head of state leads the National Guard during mobilization to support the US Armed Forces and Air Force. Federal Service of the National Guard Troops of the Russian Federation (Rosgvardia) was created in 2016 year on the basis of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, power units of the police - SOBR and OMON, as well as the Special Operations Center for Rapid Response Forces and Aviation, aviation units, departments of private security together with FSUE "Protection" and divisions of licensing and permitting work. In other words, the second army was created, reporting directly to the President, which included almost the entire power unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, significantly weakening the ability of the Ministry of the Interior. At the same time, the Russian Guard is not subordinate to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, being an independent agency. Secondly, persons serving in the US National Guard, having sufficient military training, usually, recently served in the army and do not need training from scratch. An important feature is, that the American National Guardsmen serve without interruption from their main work. They are required to undergo military training 48 classes per year, on weekends, and also 14 days - in field camp conditions. You can enter the National Guard, having just served in the RF Armed Forces, with the exception of military service in parts of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. Any combination with any other activity is prohibited. Our fighters go through physical, combat, rifle, tactical training and exercises on an ongoing basis. Thirdly, The US National Guard often performs tasks not only on the territory of the United States itself, but also outside them as part of the Armed Forces. This leads to the presence of heavy offensive weapons - tanks, self-propelled artillery, MRLS, helicopters and almost all types of aircraft, except for strategic bombers. It would seem, why the "people's militia" fifth-generation fighter F-35? But the US National Guard has them! The National Guard must carry out tasks within our country - to fight terrorism and extremism, restore constitutional order, eliminate local conflicts. Packing humanitarian aid, like american national guardsmen, Russian guards are not trained, their tasks, rather, police nature. This also explains the lack of heavy armored vehicles and strike aircraft.. However, during the NMD in Ukraine, the Russian Guard had to take part in real hostilities on a par with the RF Armed Forces. What conclusions can we draw from this? In fact, The Russian Guard appeared as a result of a hardware intradepartmental and interdepartmental struggle and became the "personal guard" of the President of the Russian Federation, headed by a commander personally devoted to him. After a partial mobilization in the RF Armed Forces, the Russian Guards in the area of the special operation switched to the more characteristic functions of maintaining order and ensuring security in the liberated territories. The American National Guard is more multi-tasking: its fighters provide security in their states, help in eliminating the consequences of riots and other emergencies, but if necessary, it becomes subordinate to the President of the United States and can be used in real hostilities abroad. We tried to do something similar in a truncated form, forming BARS – BARS management (Combat Army Reserve Special). note, that the “leopards” during the CBO showed themselves very worthy. Summarizing, can be concluded, that the American experience in creating a combat-ready army reserve may be in great demand, special, in the border regions with Ukraine and other unfriendly countries. Sergey Marzhetsky
