Russian 90th Tank Division Reviving in Central MD

The resurrected 90th Tank Division will start its new service year in the Central Military District (MD) – Chelyabinsk region on December 1.

The resurrected 90th Tank Division, deployed in the Central Military District (MD) – Chelyabinsk region, will start its new service year on December 1, the Interfax news agency reported. The military unit will be based on the 7th Tank Brigade, stationed in Chebarkul.

The division is deployed in the heart of the Urals, not so far from Kazakhstan, located to the south. An official name of the division is the 90th Guards Tank Vitebsk-Novgorod Twice Red Banner Division. Initially, it was formed on the basis of the Red Army’s 90th Guards Rifle Division, created in 1943.

Earlier, the TASS news agency reported that the division is manned and equipped with military hardware by more than 70%. However, it also was noted that in order to be formed fully, the division also needs at least another regiment of the T-72 tanks, a motorized rifle regiment, artillery and air defense units, supporting units, and military hardware from storage bases of the Central MD.

In January, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Land Forces, Col. Gen. Oleg Salyukov, said that in addition to the tank division in the Central MD, Moscow is going to deploy three ‘new’ divisions in the west of the country. He also noted that possible locations for the ‘new’ western divisions are Voronezh (Boguchar) and Smolensk (Yelnya) regions.

The redeployment of the 20th Combined Arms Army (CAA) from Nizhegorod region (Mulino) to the region of Voronezh (Boguchar) was started in 2015. The 9th IMRB, an extant maneuver brigade, was also transferred to Boguchar. The 1st Independent Tank Brigade, a remnant of the former 10th Tank Division, is also supposed to be rebased in Boguchar. However, this brigade cannot be called a fully valid military formation because earlier it was downgraded to a regiment, and then turned into a storage base by the end of the 2000. Another motorized rifle brigade may be moved to Yelnya. According to Interfax, these three brigades may become divisions.

As the Kommersant newspaper reported in June, garrisons of the 23rd and 28th IMRBs of the Central MD were sent to Bryansk (Klintsy) and Belgorod (Valuyki) regions respectively. These garrisons may also become divisions.

The 1st Tank Army in Moscow (Bakovka) region was resurrected in order to become an army-level headquarters for existing military units, including the 2nd MRD, 4th TD, 27th IMRB, and 6th Tank Brigade, which may turn into a tank division.

At the same time, an official website of the Russian Defense Ministry reported that the Southern MD gets one of the three ‘new’ divisions – the 150th Motorized Rifle Idritsa-Berlin Order of Kutuzov II Degree Division. In addition, Chief of the Russian General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, announced that the 150th Motorized Rifle Idritsa-Berlin Order of Kutuzov II Degree Division will also become a part of the new Combined Arms Army.