DATE: 31 MAR 2025
Executive Summary
The introduction of a corps system by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and using 11 elite brigades to form 6 elite corps will provide:
· A 400% increase in the number of available elite brigades with 4 of the 6 corps.
· Chances of the Russian Army encountering an Elite Ukrainian Brigade increases from 11% to 24%
· A 118% increase in Russian Army contact with Elite Ukrainian Brigades at the line of contact.
This is the force multiplier effect using to elite brigades as the standard for a corps.
The Intended Structure and Specific Elite Corps
You may have read that the Ukrainian Army has embarked on a mission to establish about 18-20 Corps. I will briefly touch on some advantages mentioned in other sources. Today I want to talk about one advantage that seems to have been either underrated or overlooked and that is how this will be a force multiplier beyond just brigades.
It appears that the intension of the Ukrainian Army is to:
· Create about 18 - 20 corps comprised of 5 brigades per Corps.
· Within these corps a set of six elite corps will be built around elite brigades within the Ukrainian Ground Forces, Air Assault Forces, Marines, and the National Guard of Ukraine.
The elite brigades selected for elite Corps are:
· Azov Army Corps – Based on the 12th Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine (Azov).
· Khartiia Army Corps – Based on the 13th Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine. (Khartiia)
· 3rd Army Corps – Based on the 3rd Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces.
· Ivan Sirko Army Corps – Based on the 92nd Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces (Ivan Sirko).
· 30th Marine Corps – Based on the 36th Marine Brigade of the Ukrainian Marines with inclusion of the 35 th, 36 th, 37 th and 38th Marine Brigades in this Corps.
· 7th Rapid Reaction Corps – Based on the 46th, 79 th, 80 th, 81 st, 82 nd, and 95th Brigades of Air Assault Forces.
Note: At the time of writing, the number assigned to the corps based Azov, Khartiia, and Ivan Sirko were not known.
The Advantages
The main advantages for any Army Corps mentioned by Butusov Plus and Reporting from Ukraine (RFU) include:
· Better organisation of logistics and supply of new equipment
· Ability to Rotate Brigades off the line of contact without disruption
· Reduced breaches in the line due to responsibility for the line of contact split between 20 Corps instead of 100 brigades.
o Only 20 points where this may happen instead of 100.
More details can be found from sources cited below for Butusov Plus and Reporting from Ukraine. Let’s look at a key advantage that may have been under-stated.
The Advantage of Force Multiplication
The choice of brigades to comprise some corps has the intention of getting other brigades chosen to be in the corps to operate at the same standard and become “elite” brigades in the corps. For example, the 3rd Army Corps is based on the 3rd Assault Brigade. Instead of having one brigade like the 3rd Assault Brigade there are now five of them. That’s a force multiplier of 400%.
So we have 6 of the 20 Corps formed using elite brigades. Since Ukraine Victory Data (UVD) likes to talk numbers lets look at some numbers.
Before corps formation we have 20 * 5 = 100 Active Brigades on the line of contact.
· With a total of 11 elite brigades, a Soldier in the Russian Army has a 11/100 = 11% chance of encountering an elite brigade.
· In any given month that translates to 3.3 days per month or 0.77 days per week.
After Corps formation we still have 20 * 5 = 100 Brigades on the line of contact.
· Creation of Corps changes the total of elite brigades to 30. A Soldier in the Russian Army now has a 30/100 = 30% chance of encountering an elite brigade.
· In any given month that translates to 9 days per month or at least 2.1 days per week.
If we assume rotation occurs of one brigade per elite corps we have 24 elite brigades.
· A Soldier in the Russian Army now has a 24/100 = 24% chance of encountering an elite brigade.
· In any given month that translates to 7.2 days per month or at least 1.68 days per week.
So the chance of encounter with elite brigades for a soldier in the Russian Army has increased by (1.68-0.77)/0.77 = 118%. This might not look like much but consider what might happen to someone when their workload is doubled with no extra resources.
The numbers are intended to quantify the force multiplier effect. In practical terms, once an elite corps is assigned to an area, the encounters of the Soldiers in the Russian army in the same area with an elite brigade will be 100% of the time.
This kind of effect does not depend on so much on external assistance as it does on the AFU being able to upskill the brigades chosen to be included in the new elite corps. Yes, the brigades will need appropriate equipment and supply, but it does not depend on external advisors, HIMARS, ATACMS, or Patriot Missiles.
In addition, if the brigades can be sourced from current brigades that can be upskilled, it doesn’t require any new brigades or new personnel. The calculations presented for force multiplication assume this is the case. The AFU has the capability and experience internally, they just need to be able to transfer that experience and standards from the elite brigades to the other brigades within each elite Corps.
Issues and Further Discussion
One thing the Armed Forces of Ukraine has been really good at is scaling up units the size of a company up to the level of Battalion for Special forces and up the level of Brigade for other forces. Three great examples of this are:
· The Shaman unit started as a squad and was scaled up to a Battalion.
· The 3rd Assault Brigade started as an untrained civilian defence unit and is now an Azov trained elite Brigade.
· The 414th Strike UAV Brigade started as a Territorial Defence Platoon.
More examples of this can be found at MiltaryLand.net
This reform will take time, although Reporting from Ukraine states that this is completed for the 3rd Army Corps. In addition, Butusov Plus did report that Ukraine has about 10 years of experience using Combat Corps from 2004 – 2014, so there is some experience at creating combat Corps. These corps were disbanded in 2015 and the current Corps up to 2024 were just administrative units.
Some have argued that these are just divisions, and it may be the case in fact. Nonetheless, the advantage for Corps based on Elite Brigades still has a force multiplier effect.
The emergence of a dedicated UAV Brigade, the 414th (Magyar’s Birds), along with a meeting of other UAV units with President Zelensky may suggest that a UAV component for any corps may become a standard feature. UAV units will probably still exist within Brigades but we may also see a dedicated UAV Brigade within each corps.
There are also other brigades that were not selected, including the 72nd Mechanised Brigade, the 4th Brigade of the National Guard, and the 47th Mechanised Brigade. Will they be chosen to go into the elite corps or are there other plans on the horizon? One should keep an eye on these brigades and their final corps assignments.
There is just one question on my mind that I do not have a clear answer on, why did this reform take so long? There are some comments on this elsewhere, I will leave to more noteworthy sources to speak on this topic.
Sources
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/46570
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufsCbC7-ixY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ftFZ9iyk-4
https://militaryland.net/ukraine/main-intelligence-directorate/shaman-battalion/
https://x.com/NOELreports/status/1888626119928152165
https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-to-launch-drone-line-project-to-enhance-battlefield-operations/
Image Credits
3rd Separate Assault Brigade Insignia. By This image is a work of a Ukrainian military or Ministry of Defense. According to the Article 10 of the Law of Ukraine on Copyright and Related rights this work is in the public domain within Ukraine and possibly in other jurisdictions because it is symbol or sign of government authorities, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations. - https://t.me/azovsof, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=128133189
92nd Assault Brigade. By This image is a work of a Ukrainian military or Ministry of Defense. According to the Article 10 of the Law of Ukraine on Copyright and Related rights this work is in the public domain within Ukraine and possibly in other jurisdictions because it is symbol or sign of government authorities, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations. - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86184944
12th Brigade of the National Guard (Azov). By This image is a work of a Ukrainian military or Ministry of Defense. According to the Article 10 of the Law of Ukraine on Copyright and Related rights this work is in the public domain within Ukraine and possibly in other jurisdictions because it is symbol or sign of government authorities, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations. - Own work, виконана на основі растрового зображення емблеми. / Inkscape'r, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46758588
13th Brigade of the National Guard (khartia) By Jerome, founder of MilitaryLand - https://militaryland.net/ukraine/national-guard/khartia-brigade/, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=130665173
35th Marine Brigade. By This image is a work of a Ukrainian military or Ministry of Defense. According to the Article 10 of the Law of Ukraine on Copyright and Related rights this work is in the public domain within Ukraine and possibly in other jurisdictions because it is symbol or sign of government authorities, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations. - https://militaryland.net/ukraine/marine-corps/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=146045595
36th Marine Brigade. By This image is a work of a Ukrainian military or Ministry of Defense. According to the Article 10 of the Law of Ukraine on Copyright and Related rights this work is in the public domain within Ukraine and possibly in other jurisdictions because it is symbol or sign of government authorities, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations. - https://militaryland.net/ukraine/marine-corps/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=146045597
37th Marine Brigade. By This image is a work of a Ukrainian military or Ministry of Defense. According to the Article 10 of the Law of Ukraine on Copyright and Related rights this work is in the public domain within Ukraine and possibly in other jurisdictions because it is symbol or sign of government authorities, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations. - https://militaryland.net/ukraine/marine-corps/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=146045596
38th Marine Brigade. By MilitaryLand - https://militaryland.net/ukraine/marine-corps/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=134052155
46th Airmobile Brigade. By Avhaz - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=138354025
79th Air Assault Brigade. By Векторизація від Olexa Andryuschenko - Нове Військо, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83176757
80th Air Assault Brigade. By This image is a work of a Ukrainian military or Ministry of Defense. According to the Article 10 of the Law of Ukraine on Copyright and Related rights this work is in the public domain within Ukraine and possibly in other jurisdictions because it is symbol or sign of government authorities, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations. - Нове Військо Векторизація від Olexa Andryuschenko, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83176756
81st Airmobile Brigade. By This image is a work of a Ukrainian military or Ministry of Defense. According to the Article 10 of the Law of Ukraine on Copyright and Related rights this work is in the public domain within Ukraine and possibly in other jurisdictions because it is symbol or sign of government authorities, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations. - Нове Військо Vectorization by Olexa Andryuschenko, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83359294
82nd Air Assault Brigade. By Avhaz - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=138355052
95th Air Assault Brigade. By This image is a work of a Ukrainian military or Ministry of Defense. According to the Article 10 of the Law of Ukraine on Copyright and Related rights this work is in the public domain within Ukraine and possibly in other jurisdictions because it is symbol or sign of government authorities, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations. - Нове Військо Векторизація від Olexa Andryuschenko, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83359305
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