The Chechen National Army (, ; ) or Chechen Armed Forces are the united militarized formations of the former de facto

Chechen Republic of Ichkeria The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria ( ; ; ; abbreviated as "ChRI" or "CRI"), known simply as Ichkeria, was a ''de facto'' State (polity), state that controlled most of the former Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Checheno-Ingus ...

. On October 15, 2022, the Armed Forces of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria were officially resurrected in Ukraine by the Government of Ichkeria in exile, with a center being on the units contributing to the

Chechen involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine The Chechen Republic, commonly known as Chechnya, is a federal republic of Russia that has been noted in several roles during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Kadyrovite forces have fought alongside the Russian forces, while several Chechen arm ...

, such as

Separate Special Purpose Battalion The Separate Special Purpose Battalion of the Ministry of Defense of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, also known as OBON, is a spetsnaz formation of Chechen volunteers, functioning as part of the International Legion of Territorial Defense of U ...

, which has seen combat in Bakhmut and Belgorod.

Defence Ministers of Chechnya

* Magomed Khanbiev (1998—2004) *

Rustaman Makhauri Rustaman Makhauri (born 1978) is a Chechen military commander and a close associate of Doku Umarov, the anti-Russian underground Chechen leader. He is suspected of being responsible for a series of attacks against the forces loyal to the governm ...

(2004—2007)

Branches

Ground Forces

Dudayev spent the years from 1991 to 1994 preparing for war, mobilizing men aged 15–55 and seizing Russian weapons depots. This was seen as a bid to prop up Chechnya's independence and sovereignty. Major weapons systems were seized from the Russian military in 1992, and on the eve of the First Chechen War they included 23 air defense guns, 108 APCs and tanks, 24 artillery pieces, 5

MiG-17 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (; NATO reporting name: Fresco) is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft produced in the Soviet Union from 1952 and was operated by air forces internationally. The MiG-17 was license-built in China as the Shenyang J-5 an ...

/ 15, 2

Mi-8 The Mil Mi-8 (, NATO reporting name: Hip) is a medium twin-turbine helicopter, originally designed by the Soviet Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) in the 1960s and introduced into the Soviet Air Force in 1968. Russian production of t ...

helicopters, 24 multiple rocket launchers, 17 surface to air missile launchers. The ground forces counted 10,000 troops in December 1994, rising to 40,000 soldiers by early 1996. Structure: * General Staff * Special Purpose Regiment * Tank Regiment * Separate Aviation Detachment * Military college * Civil defense units

Air Force

As a result of the withdrawal from the Chechen Republic in 1992, the Russian army left almost all weapons behind, including aircraft and air defense systems. At the Kalinovskaya Airbase, the Armavir Aviation School left 39 combat training aircraft L-39 Albatross, 80 L-29 Dolphin, 3 MiG-17 fighters, 2 MiG-15UTI training aircraft, 6 An-2 aircraft and 2 Mi-8T helicopters (tail numbers "23 Yellow" and "39 Yellow"). The military also had 94 L-29 trainer aircraft, 52 L-39 trainer aircraft, 6

An-22 The Antonov An-22 "Antei" (; ; NATO reporting name: "Cock") is a heavy military transport aircraft designed by the Antonov Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Powered by four turboprop engines, each driving a pair of contra-rotating propellers, ...

transport aircraft, and 5

Tupolev Tu-134 The Tupolev Tu-134 (NATO reporting name: Crusty) is a twin-engined, narrow-body jet airliner built in the Soviet Union for short and medium-haul routes from 1966 to 1989. The original version featured a glazed-nose design and, like certain oth ...

transport aircraft. Most of the Chechen aviation equipment was destroyed at airfields in the very first days of the Chechen campaign. The air defense of the air bases consisted of 10 Strela-10 air defense systems, 23 anti-aircraft artillery installations of various types and 7 Igla MANPADS. In addition, according to some media reports, the units of the

Mujahideen ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' (), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' (), an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in ''jihad'' (), interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the commun ...

who fought in Chechnya had a certain number of American-made Stinger

MANPADS Man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS or MPADS) are portable shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles. They are guided weapons and are a threat to low-flying aircraft, especially helicopters and also used against low-flying cruise missi ...

. File:Military aircraft insignia of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.svg,

Roundel A roundel is a circular disc used as a symbol. The term is used in heraldry, but also commonly used to refer to a type of national insignia used on military aircraft, generally circular in shape and usually comprising concentric rings of differ ...

of the Chechen Air Force File:Ichkeria Roundel.svg, Roundel of the Chechen Air Force (alternative variant) File:Coat of arms of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.svg, Coat of Arms of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (on Mi-8T helicopters painted with simplified wolf and yellow stars, without black background)

Bases

Three air bases were used to base the Chechen aviation forces: * Airbase "Grozny - Severny" * Airbase "Kalinovskaya" * Khankala airbase It was also reported about the ongoing work on the adaptation of several sections of highways for the basing of aircraft.

National Guard

The Chechen National Guard (; ) was a major formation in Chechnya and its military. On March 13, 1997, President

Aslan Maskhadov Aslan (Khalid) Aliyevich Maskhadov (; ; 21 September 1951 – 8 March 2005) was a Soviet and Chechen politician and military commander who was the third president of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. He was credited by many with ...

, established the National Guard of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, which was to become the only regular armed formation, on the basis of the Armed Force s of the CRI. Brigadier General Magomed Khanbiev was appointed commander of the CRI National Guard. The number of the National Guardsmen was 2,000 and it included the autonomous Presidential Guard, which was directly subordinate to the President. In addition, individual battalions were subordinate to the General Staff and the chairman of the government.Тимур Музаев — ЧЕЧЕНСКАЯ РЕСПУБЛИКА ИЧКЕРИЯ. Общий обзор.
/ref>

Organizational structure

* National Guard Units ** 1st Battalion of the National Guard named after Umalt DashaevЧеченский кризис-99 Тимур МУЗАЕВ
** 2nd Battalion of the National Guard named after Khamzat Khankarov ** 3rd Battalion of the National Guard named after Dzhokhar Dudayev ** 8th Argun National Guard Battalion
/ref> ** 10th Shali Armored Battalion of the National Guard ** Engineer Battalion * Presidential Guard * Security Battalion of the General Staff of the Armed Forces * Special Battalion under the Cabinet of Ministers of the CRI

Other paramilitary/security formations

* Interior Ministry * Department of National Security - Based on the former Soviet

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

* Anti-terrorist Center under the President of the CRI - In May 1997, the Anti-Terrorist Center was created under the President of the CRI, headed by the field commander Khunkar-Pasha Israpilov.

Publications

* ''Владислав Морозов.'' «Одинокие волки». ВВС Чеченской Республики Ичкерия в 1992-1994 гг. / Морозов В.Ю. // Авиация и Время : наук.- попул. авіац. журн. України/ ВЦ "АероХобі"; голов. ред. О. М. Ларіонов. - Київ : АероХобі, 2013. – 1 (132). – С. 40-44. * ''Владислав Морозов.'' У страха глаза велики (ВВС Чеченской Республики Ичкерия в 1992-1994 гг.) / Морозов В.Ю. // М-Хобби : журнал любителей масштабного моделизма и военной техники. – М.: Цейхауз, 2013. – 3 (142). – С. 38-41.

References

{{Reflist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Military units and formations established in 1991

Paramilitary organizations based in Russia Guerrilla organizations