User talk:B.Velikov

Welcome to Wikimedia Commons, B.Velikov!

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Croatian OrBat

Thank you for the excellent and detailed listing of the Croatian OrBat. I will try to find time in the coming 2-3 days to update the graphic. Best regards, Noclador (talk) 08:04, 12 July 2016 (UTC)

Glad to help. I helped you also with the Bulgarian and Macedonian orbats some years ago, but I did not have a wikipedia profile back then.B.Velikov (talk) 10:00, 12 July 2016 (UTC)

I finally found the time to update the Croatian Armed Forces graphic. I am uploading it now. If you have more info (also on other armies), please let me know. And thank you for the help with Macedonia and Bulgaria! :-) Noclador (talk) 12:06, 15 July 2016 (UTC)

No problem. Glad to be able to contribute. There are some issues with the updated chart though:

• the Armoured Guard Brigade, Motorized Guard Brigade and the Army TRADOC are brigade equivalents, but
• 91st Airbase, 93rd Airbase, the Air Force Training Center, the Naval Flotilla, the Coast Guard, the Naval Base are all regimental equivalents, as they are commanded by Colonels.
• so is the Support Command. It is commanded by a Colonel and equal in status to the Special Forces Command, not to the Army, AF and Naval commands.
• you are missing the CIS Center (Središnjica komunikacijsko-informacijskih sustava (S KIS)) of battalion equivalent directly subordinated to the General Staff . The Signals Battalion provides communication within the army, the CIS Center provides strategic communication between the GS and the Ministry, the directly subordinated units and the Army, AF, Naval, SOF and Support commands. These are two separate units. The Center is subordinated to the GS (and coordinated by its CIS Department), the Battalion is under Army Command. According to the official Croatian government long term development plan for the armed forces 2015 - 2024 the Center is also forming the capability to be the nation's leading cyber defence unit next to its communications tasks. Same pdf document, page 30: "Središnjica će biti nositelj izgradnje sposobnosti obrane informatičkog prostora u Oružanim snagama". (The Center will be the developer of defence capabilities of the information space in the Armed Forces). On the following page 31 you see the chart of the General Staff. In light blue you see the Director (Chief of Staff) of the GS and his subordinated departments. The CIS center is the SKIS to the far right, functionally subordinated to the CIS Department. You also see the Intelligence Center (SOD) functionally under the Intel Dept, the Special Service Center (SUO) under the Personnel Dept, which supports the Chaplain Ordinate, phychological and personnel services to the servicemen, and you also have the MP Regt (PVP) under the MP Service, directly subordinated to the Chief of Defence, together with the Operational Command center. (these are the two rich green fields).

• The SOF are dispersed. Sorry. Same pdf document map on page 49. I have just found that out myself. So the Special Forces Command, the Command company, the Commando company and the Training company are in Delnice. The 1st Special Forces Group is in Udbina and the 2nd Special Fores Group is in Split.

• The numbering of the Air Force Squadrons is officially discontinued.
  • the 21st Fighter Squadron is now officially Fighter Aircraft Squadron (literally Squadron of Fighter Aircraft - Eskadrila borbenih aviona (EBA))
  • the 27th Transport Squadron is now officially Transport Aircraft Squadron (literally Squadron of Transport Aircraft - Eskadrila transportnih aviona (ETA))
  • the 28th Helicopter Squadron is now officially Multirole Helicopter Squadron (literally Squadron of Multirole Helicopters - Eskadrila višenamjenskih helikoptera (EVH)). Also the Bells, including the Kiowa Warriors will be concentrated in Zadar, instead of split between Zadar and Lucko.
  • 855th Firefighing Squadron is now officially literally just Firefighting Squadron (Protupožarna eskadrila (PPE))
  • 20th Helicopter Squadron is now officially literally Squadron of Transport Helicopters (Eskadrila transportnih helikoptera (ETH))
  • The Aircraft Training Squadron is officially literally called Squadron of Aircraft (Eskadrila aviona (EA))
  • The Helicopter Training Squadron is officially literally called Squadron of Helicopters (Eskadrila helikoptera (EH)), as I mentioned soon to become Squadron of Combat Helicopters (Eskadrila borbenih helikoptera (EBH))
  • The only twin squadrons are the two helicopter squadrons in Zagreb - Lučko and Split - Divulje, so to make the distinction between the two they are Multirole Helicopter Sqn and Transport Helicopter Sqn, with some indications that the Divulje sqn would convert to lighter maritime Eurocopter models, at which point the designation would likely change to Squadron of Sea Helicopters (Eskadrila pomorskih helikoptera (EPH)), but we aren't there yet...

... and the two Air Technical Battalions, servicing the aircraft of the two bases. They are both simply called that - Air Technical Battalion (though these are two distinct battalions, not one battalion servicing two air bases) (Zrakoplovno-tehnička bojna (ZTB)), so to make the distinction between the two they are the Air Technical Battalion of 91st Air Base (Zrakoplovno-tehnička bojna 91e Zrakoplovne baze) and the Air Technical Battalion of 93rd Air Base (Zrakoplovno-tehnička bojna 93e Zrakoplovne baze)

• And just as a heads-up, on page 55, chart 12: Slika 12.: Organizacijska karta razvrstane pričuve. The Croatian MOD plans to organize two categories of reserve personnel. The Non-deployable reserve will be the registry of all fit for service men, who have not underwent military training. What you see on the chart is the Deployable reserve, which would amount up to 20 000 reservists, who have underwent military training. As you see there are 6 Infantry regiments, 2 Gun-Rocket regiments, a Logistics regiment, AD regiment, Engineer battalion and a Signals battalion. I haven't found a specified timeframe for its implementation.

Best regards! B.Velikov (talk) 21:11, 15 July 2016 (UTC)

Notes

I did an update now. But have 2 questions.

1. As the graphic is now I don't have space for the CIS Center. Either I have to add more lines under the General Staff, which makes it unseemly long or I replace the Presidential Guard Battalion. What do you suggest we do?
2. As for 91st Airbase, 93rd Airbase, the Air Force Training Center, the Naval Flotilla, the Coast Guard - if they are commanded by Colonels they can be brigade or regiment equals... i.e. in France/Italy/Spain/Germany etc. Colonels command regiments and brigadier generals command brigades, but in the US/UK/Canada etc. Colonels command the brigades and brigadiers are staff officers in higher commands. Usually a military will try to have the same number of 1-star commands in all the branches. Therefore to me it seems that there would be 3x brigade level commands in each of the three branches. Are you sure we should change the air bases and the navy commands to regiments (= 3 lines instead of 1 star)?. Thanks for your work and answers, Noclador (talk) 10:33, 16 July 2016 (UTC)

Yes, I see yor points, but the thing is that the established commander rank for the two army brigades and the TRADOC is brigadni general (Brigade General) and the established commander rank for the said formations is brigadir (Colonel) or its naval equivalent of capetan bojnog broda (Captain). So this inequality is formally established. I guess it has to do with the fact, that the brigade and TRADOC commanders are also tasked with territorial aid to the civil authorities and population in case of natural disasters and emergencies. So in my opinion they should be (X) and the said formations should be (III). As for the lack of space for the CIS Center, I guess you could add the CIS Center and the GS Support Unit (Dom Generalog Stožera) and place them all in one line. So you could have the Military Academy, Military Police Regiment and the Honour Guard Battalion to the left (as they are directly under the Chief of Defence) and the Intelligence Center, the CIS Center and the GS Support Unit to the right (as their subordination goes through the Director of the GS). B.Velikov (talk) 11:02, 16 July 2016 (UTC)

Done. Please check again for errors. Thank you, Noclador (talk) 16:42, 16 July 2016 (UTC)

Really splendid job! Nothing more to say. :) B.Velikov (talk) 18:08, 16 July 2016 (UTC)

Lithuania

Hello and thank you for your excellent work! I did an update of the chart, File:Lithuania Armed Forces 2016.png but I have a question:

The Special Operations Forces - is it based in Vilnius or Kaunas?

Thank you for your help and I hope you are ok with how the chart looks, best regards, Noclador (talk) 13:39, 17 August 2016 (UTC)

The chart looks really great, tidy and organised. Maybe I would have drawn the two special forces services and the regional MP units as company equivalents (I), as the commanding officers are senior than lieutenants and they include more officers than platoons, but it's really up to you.

As for the SOCOM: The Jaeger Bn "Vitautas the Great" (Vytauto Didžiojo jėgerių batalionas), which is like a Ranger equivalent for support of the two leading SOF units is based in Kaunas, the Special Purpose Service (Ypatingosios paskirties tarnyba, even its name draws paralell to the Russian SpetsNaz) is the elite of the elite and it's based in Vilnius, the Combat Frogmen Service of the Special operations Force (Specialiųjų operacijų pajėgų Kovinių narų tarnyba) is naturally based at the Klaipeda Naval Base with the Fleet.

To your question the Command Element is based in Vilnius, but it is not a Command Company. Its Lithuanian name is Specialiųjų operacijų grandis, which literally means Special Operations Unit (Unit like the meaning of the Russian word "звено", I know you understand Russian). So it is literally called Special Operations Unit, but not in the meaning of Unit made up of Special Forces operators. It means "Unit for [Conducting] Special Operations". And the tricky part about the chart is that the Battalion and two SOF services are integral parts of the SOCOM, while the Special Operations Unit (or more precisely the Special Operations Leading Element if you will) is not. It is a unit of the Joint Forces Staff, permanently attached to the SOCOM. I have read it on their MOD website. Greetings! B.Velikov (talk) 14:11, 17 August 2016 (UTC)

I changed the MP and SF units to company, which is probably the more correct symbol. As for the Special Operations Staff Unit... puh... let's just leave it, because any other variant becomes to complicated. Thank you for your help and if you come across some info as to where the new units of the Lithuanian Land Forces will be based, please let me know. cheers, Noclador (talk) 21:36, 17 August 2016 (UTC)