The Russian Signal Troops (Russian: Войска связи), also known as the Signal Communications Troops, is a Combat Arm of the Russian Ground Forces, responsible for military communications. The Signal Troops are an integral part of the Armed Forces. Its condition and functioning largely influences efficiency of command, the timeliness of combat equipment and weapons. In its development, the Signal Troops has come a long and difficult process that is inextricably linked with the history of the Armed Forces, the changes in the forms and methods of their use and the improvement of military art. From simple audio and visual means of communication for the transmission of signals and commands on the battlefield to widely branched multi-channel, advanced automated systems that can provide a link of virtually unlimited range of both stationary and moving objects on the ground, in the water, under the water and in the air, this is the historical path of development and improvement of military communications. Communication on the battlefield is one of the main types of operational support.
Overview According to the Russian Ministry of Defence, the Signal Communications Troops are special troops designed for deployment of communications systems and support of control over associations, formations and subdivisions of the Land Force in peacetime and wartime. They are also assigned for the tasks of operating systems and automation equipment at command posts. Signal Communications Troops include the main and line formations and units, units of technical support of signal communications and automated control systems, signal communications security services, postal-and-courier communications services, and others. Modern Signal Communications Troops are equipped with mobile, highly reliable radio relay, tropospheric, space stations, high-frequency telephony equipment, tone telegraphy, television and photographic equipment, switching equipment and special equipment of classifying messages. The main developing direction of the Signal Communications Troops is equipping the Land Force with means and complexes of signal communications, as well as automated systems for control of troops and weapons, providing steady, continuous, rapid and secretive control over associations, formations and subdivisions in peacetime, period of threat and during conducting hostilities under the toughest physical-geographic and climatic conditions. Particular attention is given to introduction of an integrated system of control over troops and weapons of the tactical level and equipping troops with digital signal communications means providing secure, jam-resistant mode of exchange of information from the individual serviceman to the formation’s commander.
History Due to the spatial scale of hostilities, the communication problem in the military in the 19th century acquired great importance. In the Imperial Russian Army the first attempts to introduce the telegraph took place during the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, and it brought along with it enormous benefit in the management of troops, they have led to greater use of means of communication. Telegraphs and telephones occupied a prominent place in the management of troops, with the most widely developed mobile lines for leading troops directly in the war theater. At the end of the 19th century the military telegraph and telephone park consisting of units directly administered by the Chief Engineer's Office, operated lines in Central Russia - 17 lines (975 miles) and the Caucasus - two (130 miles). In addition, the fortresses were given 55 communication nodes (423 miles). In February 1905, in the Red Village, where there was a military warehouse of radios purchased abroad, was sent a group of officers, graduates of military signalers electrical schools to train stations to study the experience of command and control in combat conditions. Already in March 1905, these officers were sent to fight in the Russo-Japanese War that spring, and were integrated into the regular forces of the Army. In 1912, the Signals Corps was raised as a separate arm, with Corps units in the Army. These Corps consists of two signals divisions (8 infantry regiments in 4 brigades), one signals battalion (one and three sapper telegraph company) and one field engineering department park was stocked with 20 telegraphs, 193 telegraphs and 333 cable lines. The Corps fought bravely in the actions of the First World War. After the October Revolution and as the Russian Civil War had dawned in 1918, the Red Army officially reorganized the Russian Signals Corps, and October 20, 1919 they were officially recognized as special troops, as signals units distinguished themselves in action during the Civil War days. General-mayor of Signals N.I. Gapich headed the Directorate of Communications of the Red Army on the outbreak of war. After the German Operation Barbarossa began, signals communications needs multiplied. The signal forces were "poorly equipped, severely undermanned, and incapable of performing their primary wartime missions," and thus they were the "weakest portion of the army's entire force structure" on the eve of Operation Barbarossa. Before the war, the army's signals forces were made up primarily of signals regiments and battalions assigned to it, maintained at 40-45% strength, and units responsible for communicating between the General Staff and field forces, which the People's Commissariat for Defence planned to mobilize only on the event of war. On 23 July 1941, to help address these problems, Colonel Ivan Peresypkin was appointed as Chief of Signals Forces on the order of the People's Commissariat for Defence. The Communications Directorate was elevated to a Main Directorate. The Chief of Signals Forces would later acquire the rank of Marshal of a branch in 1944, and three more generals would be promoted to Marshal of Signals Troops after the war.
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