According to the November 29 intelligence update by the British Defense Ministry, Russian forces in Ukraine have likely largely stopped deploying as Battalion Tactical Groups (BTGs) over the last three months.
A BTG is a semi-permanent task force found in the maneuver (motorized rifle and tank) regiments and brigades of the Russian military that can perform semi-independent combined arms combat missions.
The Ministry tweeted:
- “The BTG concept has played a major part in Russian military doctrine for the last ten years, and saw battalions integrated with a full range of supporting sub-units, including armour, reconnaissance and (in a departure from usual Western practice) artillery.”
- “Several intrinsic weaknesses of the BTG concept have been exposed in the high intensity, large-scale combat of the Ukraine war so far. BTGs’ relatively small allocation of combat infantry has often proved insufficient. Decentralised distribution of artillery has not allowed Russia to fully leverage its advantage in numbers of guns; and few BTG commanders have been empowered to flexibly exploit opportunities in the way the BTG model was designed to promote.”
